How Queer as Folk Beme a Defg Gay TV Show | Time

Contents:

• HOW QUEER AS FOLK BEME THE DEFG GAY TV SHOW OF A GENERATN—TWICE
• WHO SHOULD I START? NICK FOLK OR MATT GAY
• DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

HOW QUEER AS FOLK BEME THE DEFG GAY TV SHOW OF A GENERATN—TWICE

But while one room celebrated folk mic’s recent history, the other ponred what might yet month’s global Pri events acknowledge the richns of queer inty, and folk mic is creasgly part of that: gay, lbian, trans and other artists are g to munite their experienc and speak to a muny whose stori are rare the genre. Tom Robson released Glad to Be Gay 1978, and Billy Bragg and Kirsty MacColl sang Sexualy 1991, an elated hymn to sexual liberatn.

Photograph: J FaganBut you have to know where to look for songs like the, somethg that Jane Edwardson, mil director for LGBT muny choir Gay Abandon found out when preparg a queer-themed folk set. “This is que a big change for Gay Abandon, ” she says. After months of hype, which gay men had been promised that they were gog to get the sexit, taboo-shatterg show on televisn--that even starred openly gay men--people tuned ready to be disappoted.

Although was a landmark ocsn, and went on to feature many TV firsts--cludg the first legally wed gay uple, first gay adoptn, and HIV-posive/negative uple-- remaed a guilty pleasure, maligned by remaed cyil bee they had watched bootleg VHS pi of the origal, U.

WHO SHOULD I START? NICK FOLK OR MATT GAY

Every TV show seemed to have a gay character, men and teenage boys kissed on work televisn, and people seemed more terted engagements and weddg ceremoni than they did about the thgs that happened the bedroom.

DIPLOMATIC TENSN REPORTEDLY RISG BETWEEN UNED STAT AND JAMAI OVER GAY AMERIN DIPLOMAT

"I get a ltle b pissed at tim about how fotten we n be to certa extent, and how we played a major part pavg the way for actors to feel more fortable playg gay rol, " says Hal Sparks, who was known to most people at the time as the host of E! "This will be the 15th anniversary of s breakthrough, and ready to rensir the seri through a new lens, Out spoke to the six ma actors--cludg Robert Gant, another gay actor who joed the st as HIV-posive dreamboat Ben Season 2--about how the show affected them and changed their liv. I mean, I got trated wh shootg sex later on the seri but, at the begng, I jt remember I was sperate for those imag when I was a gay kid growg up.

There were some foreign movi at the die movie rental plac that were about gay stori and sexualy that weren't pornography. So I was really exced that I was gog to be a part of that for other people and tellg a gay story that was gog to be on televisn. I remember watchg the pilot episo and that first sex scene--that was the first time I have seen gay men engagg any physil activy that didn't volve ont-to-back.

I wanted gay upl and gay dividuals who were watchg the show, were told by everyone around them that their sexualy was a liftyle choice or jt physil, to see the love the sex.

Bee that's why I thk gay or lbian is a much more valuable word than homosexual--bee homosexual not to a physil nnectivy and gay and lbian is about relatnships. What I wanted them to see was two gay men together, not two homosexuals. To some to gree, what you were seeg the Brian sex scen--om an outsi perspective--was two homosexuals: people who are sexually-driven but not emotnally nnected.

Once he found someone he was ready to give himself over to, that wasn't an issue at all and actually ma those scen more meangful and some ways more humoro and when we had the people agast gay marriage g door-to-door and terptg Ben and Michael havg sex--which was hilar and one of the most fun scen we had to shoot--but at the same time the sex scene the kchen that preces , we had crew members g up to after sayg, "I don't know how you do . And the were lifelong gay alli. Jt bee we worked so hard to get right and, at that time, that's somethg that was jt startg, crystal meth the gay muny.