Based upon the high-profile British miniseries of the same name, Showtime’s Queer as Folk was created in the late 90s by personal/professional partners Daniel Lipman and Ron Cowen (An Early Frost). Advance word that Queer was edgy, controversial, and transformational surprised Americans who are used to homogenized, watered-down U.S. version of U.K. and European imports.

But when Americans finally met the gay men and women of Pittsburgh’s Liberty Avenue in late December 1999, our expectations were exceeded.

Queer as Folk took no prisoners, pulled no punches. It batted the closet out of the ballpark; it nuked Middle American consciousness. Straight viewers (and there were many) saw three-dimensional gays and lesbians who represented them in courtrooms, kept their books, created their advertising, and assisted them at Wal-Mart (or Q-Mart, if you prefer). Long considered as taboo as the N word, the series launched a new vogue for the word "queer."

Overnight, QAF became the belle of the gay/lesbian ball, a prime target for conservative outrage, and Showtime’s highest-rated series.

Fortunately, the series didn’t mellow through five seasons, nor did it show its age. Right up to the final fade, QAF flipped off those who would make second-class citizens of America’s gay men and lesbian women.

It also never shied away from graphic depictions of sex. When, in the series’ premiere, Michael Novotny (Hal Sparks) announced, “The thing you need to know is that it’s all about sex,” his dialogue sounded more like a mission statement, than exposition. Some queer folk took exception.

Certainly sex, nudity, and bodies entwined passionately were boldly, daringly depicted. But the series matured beyond sex, exploring family and relationships.

In between the bookends of Episodes 1 and 83, Queer as Folk examined almost every major concern of the gay and lesbian communities. Addiction, adoption, bare-backing, bashing, cults, discrimination of every kind, love, marriage, divorce, spousal abuse, hate, human rights, parental rejection, and HIV/AIDS, were grist for the show’s no-holds-barred mill. Although an end-credit disclaimer stated that the series didn’t reflect and represent all of gay life, in one episode or another, through this storyline, or that one, it did.
Along the way, Queer helped folk to come out, assisted the healing of estranged families, and became a catalyst for self-esteem.

When detractors accused the series of being top-heavy with nudity, promiscuity, and sex, its champions countered that the series was a balancing counterpoint to the no-no-sexual gays portrayed on broadcast network series such as Will & Grace.

The nay-sayers notwithstanding, Queer as Folk continued its full frontal assault on television’s status quo.

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