The fact that gay sex remas a taboo wh the mastream – wh films like 'Bohemian Rhapsody' and 'Call Me By Your Name' facg cricism for 'airbshg' om the screen – only rerc the show’s path-breaker stat
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
The show, celebratg s 20th anniversary, was a pneer puttg gay men's liv centre stage. * gay as folk uk *
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.
HOW QUEER AS FOLK BEME THE DEFG GAY TV SHOW OF A GENERATN—TWICE
Queer as Folk: Created by Ron Cowen, Daniel Lipman, Rsell T. Davi. Wh Michelle Clunie, Thea Gill, Gale Harold, Randy Harrison. Brash humor and genue emotn make up this seri revolvg around the liv, lov, ambns, reers and iendships of a group of gay men and women livg on Liberty Avenue ntemporary Ptsburgh, PA." data-id="ma * gay as folk uk *
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 . 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. In 2005, the UK first legalised same-sex civil partnerships but wasn’t until 2014 that gay marriage was legal.
TWENTY YEARS ON, QUEER AS FOLK REMAS A MORE RADIL AND FEARLS TRIBUTE TO GAY LIFE THAN MANY LGBT+ SHOWS TODAY
* gay as folk uk *
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?
After rerdg 88 episos of the US versn of Queer as Folk, Patrick and Matt turn their attentn to the origal. The masterpiece that started all. In Still Queer as Folk UK, your favore (?) bchy and sometim tty gay guys give a cril analysis of one of the bt exampl of episodic gay fictn ever televised. Stay tuned after we ver all 10 episos for a special US vs UK edn!" name="scriptn * gay as folk uk *
Gay people need to be portrayed a posive light, they need to see characters onscreen who seemgly had all. Nathan, the teenager fulfillg his hormone-fuelled dreams and beg accepted to the gay club scene; Vce, the one who acclimatis to hetero culture so nvcgly he attracts more attentn om women than men (a bizarre aspiratn, but perhaps one that young gay men hoped for orr to avoid unwanted attentn and prejudice); and Stuart, the one who is unashamedly gay and proud of .
It also shed new light on the experience of the epimic, through stori of those who were affected the most – the gay muny – as well as enuragg a rise HIV ttg the young people of today. Perhaps he’s a ltle stereotypil of the age-old nventns of what society ems a gay man, but so many other ways, Queer As Folk avoids the stereotypg.