TV's Most Influential Gay Male Sex Scenes

3. Noah's Arc: Noah and Wade

Every show has an "it" couple, and Noah (Darryl Stephens) and Wade (Jensen Atwood) are "it" on Noah's Arc. They're on this list because of the historical significance of Noah's Arc as the first drama focusing exclusively on black gay men. But they'd be here even if there were 10,000 other shows focusing on black gay men, because Noah and Wade are in love.

Oh sure, it's a soapy, dysfunctional love, but if you can watch the scene where Wade's holding Noah's hand in the hospital after Noah gets gay-bashed without choking up, you might want to go see the Wizard about getting a heart.

That said, there aren't 10,000 other television shows focusing on black gay men. Noah's Arc is about the lives and loves of people who are almost never shown on television. As Rod McCullom told AfterElton.com earlier this year: "It's extremely important for us to see our images, as imperfect as they may be. And for some people, this is the very first time they saw black gay men on television, the very first time they saw black gay men on television express love toward each other, interacting with each other."

Noah's Arc didn't shy away from showing the sexual side of those expressions of love, although it pulled back a bit from the "no limits" of its predecessor, Queer as Folk. In the series premiere, Noah is falling hard for Wade, a supposedly straight man he knows through a writers' group they both belong to. When Wade suggests coffee, Noah goes. When Wade suggests they watch his new action film together, Noah goes. When Wade suggests they go dancing at a gay club, Noah goes. And when Wade suggests a three-way with a woman he knows, Noah freaks out, is advised by his closest friends not to do it, and then, of course, goes.

Naturally, at that point Wade figures out that three's company, sends the female friend home, and endearingly, awkwardly and oh-so-erotically asks Noah to go to bed with him. And — surprise, surprise — Noah goes.

The course of true love never runs smooth, in life or on soap operas, so of course they break up and get back together. That's what soap couples do. Their reunion after Noah is gay-bashed gets all the points for romantic sex, but Noah and Wade's first time takes the prize for breaking ground — and making it both hot and sweet.

Hotness Rating: 8/10
Romance Rating: 7/10
Significance Rating: 8/10

4. Queer as Folk: Ben and Michael

If Brian and Justin are the poster boys for the undefined, unconventional open relationship, fellow Queer as Folk couple Ben (Robert Gant) and Michael (Hal Sparks) carry the flag for marriage, monogamy and queer family values.

Ben and Michael weather health challenges, tensions over their different HIV status, adopting an HIV-positive foster child, Michael fathering a baby with a lesbian friend, and buying a home together. In the show's fourth season, Ben and Michael go to Toronto (where the show was filmed) and get legally married.

That was certainly not television's first gay wedding, but their first night back home in the United States — complete with wedding bands on their beautifully entwined fingers, Me First and the Gimme Gimmes' punky version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" for a soundtrack, and the truly awesome abdominal muscles of out gay actor Robert Gant — was certainly television's first gay wedding night.

Hotness Rating: 6/10
Romance Rating: 8/10
Significance Rating: 9/10