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If the show’s throbbing epicenter of passion was unrepentant sexaholic Brian Kinney (Gale Harold), then Queer as Folk’s big, soft heart was Michael’s mother Debbie (Emmy-winner Sharon Gless in a red fright wig) playing the anti-June Cleaver.

When we meet Justin Taylor (Randy Harrison), he’s the cute, blond, illegal twink-essential boy toy. Ted Schmidt (Scott Lowell) is the plain Joe, the practical one. You just know that Ted wore pocket protectors and had a Dallas lunch box in high school.

Emmett Honeycutt (Peter Paige) is the effeminate one, the displaced Southern sissy who barely survived his homophobic upbringing. He’s also the show’s career chameleon, transitioning from clothing display to nude waiter, porn star (Fetch Dickson, anyone?), then chi-chi caterer, and, finally, television news personality.

Michael, described as an idealist by other characters, was always QAF’s gay boy most likely to succeed at marriage. In Season One, he set up housekeeping with Dr. David Cameron (Chris Potter). QAF viewers loved the chiropractor as much as Michael did. But the heterosexual playing Dr. Dave didn’t return the affection (and Potter complained about excessive nudity, gay sex, and separation from his wife and child, living in San Diego; ironically, Potter and family now live in Toronto, where the series was filmed).

The even hotter, HIV+ Professor Ben Bruckner (real-life gay actor Robert Gant) replaced Dr. Dave as Michael’s spouse in Season Two.

Focused primarily on gay men, Queer as Folk was also a vibrant, if secondary, showcase for lesbians. Lindsay Petersen (Thea Gill), her wife Melanie Marcus (Michelle Clunie), and their friends were stitched importantly into the fabric of the series from the first episode, when Lindsay bears Brian’s son.

When Queer as Folk ended, Sunday, August 7, Brian and Justin called off their nuptials. Lindsay and Melanie, along with their children, re-locate to Canada, where, presumably, they won’t face discrimination. Michael and Ben decide to adopt foster son Hunter. Ted is reunited with a former love. And a face from Emmett’s painful past returns to pleasure him.

Through the years, the Television Academy, along with most major award-givers, snubbed Queer as Folk. When the series closed, there was no TV Guide cover story. People didn’t look back on Liberty Avenue, nor was the series’ passing noted in Time’s Milestones. Pity.
We now have at least three American gay/lesbian television networks. There were none when QAF premiered. Ironically, regrettably, there’s nothing on any of them to fill the bold, daring void left by Queer as Folk’s departure. It’s a sad sign of these backward times.

The Showtime series has ended, but the QAF franchise remains highly marketable. Some network should launch a new QAF with the next generation of Liberty Avenue gays/lesbians carrying the torch for those who went before them. Every generation has its Brians, Michaels, Lindsays, and Emmetts. We still need to see their stories told uncompromisingly.

The coming of HBO’s Six Feet Under was the antithesis of Queer as Folk’s arrival. Six Feet Under premiered in June 2001 amid ongoing acclaim, not controversy, for its openly gay, Oscar-winning creator Alan Ball (American Beauty).

If established television actors considered QAF to be career suicide, then every actor in Hollywood wanted a ride on Alan Ball’s Oscar-winning coattails with a role in his first dramatic television series.

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