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

Contents:

• HOW QUEER AS FOLK BROKE THE MOULD FOR GAY PEOPLE ON TV
• HOW QUEER AS FOLK BEME THE DEFG GAY TV SHOW OF A GENERATN—TWICE
• TWENTY YEARS ON, QUEER AS FOLK REMAS A MORE RADIL AND FEARLS TRIBUTE TO GAY LIFE THAN MANY LGBT+ SHOWS TODAY

HOW QUEER AS FOLK BROKE THE MOULD FOR GAY PEOPLE ON TV

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. In 1999, Channel 4 premiered a short-lived edy drama chroniclg the liv of three young gay men Manchter.

Nobody had seen such a ndid and explic exprsn of homosexualy on televisn. ” And numero others n attt, no doubt, that the tillatg no-holds-barred look at gay life the ’90s, whether you were gay or not, held a certa level of thrill for s unapologetic approach. Centred around three young men: Vce (Craig Kelly), Stuart (Aidan Gillen) and Nathan (Charlie Hunnam), the show was a unique look at the gay scene om the get-go, and om the pot of view of someone who had been immersed .

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

Whether you intify as gay, straight, bi or anythg between, whether you are male or female, trans or non-bary, we all have elements of each of them – or perhaps wish we did. Queer As Folk ed stant ntroversy upon release thanks to s graphic portrayals of gay sex, and shockgly not for the fact that a 29-year-old adult “pulls” a 15-year-old school stunt (an aspect changed the US versn, creasg his age to 17) the very first episo – which, by today’s standards, is the most problematic aspect of the show. It’s a learng curve and iatn to the gay scene where he is able to fd himself and velop his own inty.

Casual racism, sexism and homophobia was monplace the media 1999 and mostly only explicly cricised through the medium of stand-up edy and sketch shows. Gay marriage was jt a pipe-dream and was only 14 years prr to the show’s premiere that UK TV had seen s first openly gay character the form of Gordan Colls the soap Brooksi. The kg of queer himself, Elton John, hadn’t officially “e out” as a gay man until a 1992 terview wh Rollg Stone magaze.

TWENTY YEARS ON, QUEER AS FOLK REMAS A MORE RADIL AND FEARLS TRIBUTE TO GAY LIFE THAN MANY LGBT+ SHOWS TODAY

In 2005, the UK first legalised same-sex civil partnerships but wasn’t until 2014 that gay marriage was legal. It’s a fertile ground for a brand new rnatn of the show that broke boundari and first plac homosexuals at the helm of an entire seri.

Rsell T Davi, of urse, faced a ton of backlash – and not jt om homophob. Davi was cricised at the time for appearg to ignore the 1980s AIDS crisis, which was apparently unacceptable if you were producg a televisn show about gay sex.

But this was the new lennium, the AIDS crisis wasn’t the “gay disease” anymore, a harmful narrative that needs to rema the ’80s along wh mullets and over-sized shoulr pads.

Why was always gay people who have to be hnted by an epimic that affected hundreds upon thoands of people, whether queer or not? Gay people need to be portrayed a posive light, they need to see characters onscreen who seemgly had all.