#tv: queer as folk

[etcpackers]

Robert Gant & Hal Sparks in Queer as Folk 3x06, “One Ring to Rule Them All” (2003, dir. Bruce McDonald)

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[sophsun1]

[jeysuso]

[amessinadress]

Can we all agree that Guillermo isn’t turning full vamp because of his guilt and unresolved feelings for Nandor? I have a theory that as soon as he’s honest with Nandor, all his powers will manifest.

[lopeach]

i get why ppl are upset abt the murderbot casting and i feel it a little too but yall know that masculine ppl can be agender too right? yall know that agender (nonbinary in general) people can and very much are able to be masculine and its not just woman+ ,,,,,right?

[weherzit]

[filmjunky-99]

q u e e r a s f o l k, 1999 📺 created by russell t davies

[kermit-coded]

i will never be able to put into words how much the percy jackson books mean to me... they were a formative experience and they truly helped shape me into the person i am today, so the fact that we're finally getting a good live action makes me feel unwell...

[unapologeticallygay]

Gay TV Show Firsts

On February 9th, 1971 the first explicitly gay character “Steve” appeared on television in season 1 episode 5 “Judging Books by Covers” of the American sitcom All in the Family. This episode made its mark by portraying the opposite of the flamboyant stereotype of gay men (that the main character and best friend of Steve held to believe) by representing a gay man who was the complete opposite: masculine, tough, and a former football player. These attributes lead president at the time Richard Nixon to call out the show for “glorifying homosexuality”. Prior to this there were some coded and repressed gay and lesbian characters, but it was not as clear as to them being homosexual as it was on All in the Family.

The first same sex kiss ever on television was in Australian soap opera The Box in the first episode which premiered on February 11, 1974. The character Vicki Stafford (right) is canonically bisexual.

The American sitcom Hot l Baltimore which ran on ABC for one season in 1975, beginning January 24th, featured tv’s first gay couple, they were also main characters. There was much controversy for this at the time and the couple was not allowed to show any physical intimacy. There was also a viewer discretion warning at the beginning of each episode to warn for “mature themes”.

On February 7th, 1991 legal drama L.A. Law featured the first same sex kiss on American network television in the episode “He’s a Crowd”.

Controversy and support erupted and some advertisers removed their advertisements from the broadcast, while GLAAD praised the episode. One of the actresses reported that the kiss was a ratings ploy with no intention to explore a lesbian relationship. Both characters ended up with men.

This episode gave birth to the TV trope “lesbian kiss episode”, where a typically one off episode character that was a lesbian or bisexual woman would kiss a heterosexual female main character, played for shocks, laughs and ratings boots and is never mentioned again or explored further.

On October 20th of that same year Fox’s sitcom Roc featured the first gay wedding in season 1 episode 8 titled “Can’t Help Loving That Man”.

Writer of the episode Jeffrey Duteil said the audience was overwhelmingly supportive and that the network “couldn’t be more pleased” with how it turned out.

The first gay sex scene on television was a bit hard to confirm but I believe it to be from the original UK Queer as Folk which began airing February 23rd, 1999 and ran till February 22nd, 2000.

The US remake of the show which ran from December 3rd, 2000 - August 2nd 2005 was the first American show to feature gay sex. Both shows were very groundbreaking for their explicit portrayal of it.

[nellarw95]

Happy Birthday Charlie 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

April 10,1980

Buon Compleanno 🥳🎂🎈🎁🎉

10 Aprile 1980

[jeansandateeshirt]

From my friend & I’s end of the year recap episode of our podcast All Your Friends Are Queer

[haveyouseenthisseries-poll]

[dandyads]

Queer as Folk, 2000 (US)

[madsworld15]

Why Queer as Folk (2000) Was Seemingly Forgotten

An analysis by a professional TV Critic

Let me start off by saying the initial run of Queer as Folk and its current resurgence can be represented by this mantra by Brian Kinney: There are two kinds of straight people. The ones who hate you to your back and the ones who hate you to your face.

The initial run of QAF coincides with the first half of the statement: hate behind your back.

So, recently I started thinking about how in the early 2000s, Queer as Folk seemed to be on a trajectory of going down in TV history. Then, seemingly just as quickly, people stopped talking about it. So much so that by the time I finished watching it in 2009, I only got a few good months of chatter on social media platforms (Twitter mostly) with other fans before it just stopped being talked about in a wide-reaching manner.

I will even admit that I stopped thinking about the show not long after that and wasn't reminded of its full impact on my psyche until late last year when it was back on easy-access streaming due to Showtime's merge with Paramount+.

But why is it that this show is only just now starting to pick up speed again? (I'm talking fan cams on TikTok, memes, etc.)

I have some theories about all of this, so buckle in.

To really get a grasp of what Queer as Folk was working against when it aired on Showtime -- a paid subscription channel back before the days of an overabundance of streaming services, you have to look at the climate we were living in. Also, how inaccessible a paid TV channel was for most people.

So, in the early 2000s, life in the United States, and probably the world, but I'm not fully educated enough to comment on that, wasn't the greatest for those in the LGBT+ community. It would be years before the President of the United States would pass legislation that Gay Marriage be legal nationwide.

Employers were able to fire people for being gay, and the employees couldn't fight it. Gay parents had very little in terms of rights to their own children; in fact, some couldn't even adopt the kids they wanted to because there were no laws against discrimination.

All of these things are depicted left and right throughout Queer as Folk, with Ted getting fired from his job, Michael being extremely closeted at his job, and Melanie not being afforded rights to Gus because of adoption regulations during that time.

So, for our community to receive a show that was by us for us, we were overjoyed. There was something so resolutely refreshing about the unapologetic manner in which these characters were allowed to present themselves and live their lives. And while the show gets dinged today for its lack of racial diversity, we were glad to see queer people represented in a variety of ways -- we got to see the Emmett's and Justin's of the world being friends with the Ted's and Michael's and Brian's.

Not only that, these characters got to love who they wanted, however, they wanted, and whenever they wanted. Characters like Michael and Emmett could go from wanting to freely fuck whoever to finding that special person and settling down. We got to see Ted find the right guy at the wrong time over and over and over again until it was finally the right guy at the right time.

But most of all, we got to see a character like Brian, who, in the hands of a straight person, might've actually gone "soft" and "domestic" just by being with Justin. Instead, we got to see him never change his opinion about what he wanted, but still finding love in his own way.

However, not long after the show ended (like around 2008), the climate in the United States started to shift more towards open acceptance of the queer community. So, people stopped needing an escape from the hardships of real life because things seemed to be on an upward trend toward love and equality. Therefore, Queer as Folk sort of fell off the radar of viewers because we didn't want more of the gritty, complicated, messy queer stories. We wanted our stories to be happy and lighthearted.

(Keep in mind I am speaking in terms of general viewers. There are always exceptions to the rule)

Then, in 2016, Donald Trump was elected President of the United States, and suddenly, it was totally okay for people to openly mock us and hate us.

This is where the resurgence of QAF falls into the second half of Brian's mantra: hate us to our face.

Around 2016/2017, people started talking about this show again. And the love and fervor for it has only increased exponentially over the last few years, especially with the onset of COVID-19 and the merging of Showtime/Paramount+. Both events made the public more aware and able to access the show.

Now more than ever, we need something that isn't afraid to show queer people as we are, not as the media and those outside our community paint us. We need to feel like there is a media format that understands what we are like when we are with our closest friends. We say things that, in today's world, would probably get us canceled, and we judge those around us and have very biased opinions about certain people.

Brian Kinney's unapologetic "I am who I am and fuck anyone who tries to change me" attitude is the exact level of strength and courage we wished more people right now had. His biased, but not illogical, opinion of non-queers needs to be loud. It needs to be shouted from the rooftops because we now live in a world where we are hated just for existing as we are.

Even our rights that had been given to us just a decade ago are being stripped away from us once more. So, the fight for love and equality continues, and the hope that Queer as Folk gives us is important now more than ever.

So, people are seeking this story out and are begging others in the world to watch it and understand that we have always been here. We've always been these flawed but loving characters. We deserve to be heard.

In 2022, Peacock tried its best to create a redo of the series but failed miserably. But why? If we are desperately looking for queer media that is gritty, unapologetic, and real, then why didn't we latch onto this latest iteration?

The answer is simple. This new version was great at creating a more diverse image of the characters created for the Showtime series but failed to understand that recreating things almost note for note with entirely new characters isn't what we want.

It would've been better if the show stuck to broad-stroke themes and made these characters and their experiences their own. Queer today is different than queer in the early 2000s, just like queer in the 2000s was different than queer in the 1980s. Trying to put queer 2000s stories into a queer 2020s world isn't going to work.

We need to embrace this resurgence of Queer as Folk (2000) and give it the love and attention it should've always had. Perhaps finally giving its rightful due in the eyes of the history of queer media. Does it have its issues as the world changes? Absolutely, but we also can't sit here and deny the insane level of impact this show had on the queer media we now know and love.

We wouldn't have casually queer shows like Schitt's Creek, Heartstopper, and Our Flag Means Death if Queer as Folk hadn't broken down our walls and made us realize that we can demand stories for queer people by queer people.

[hawkfuller]

queer as folk (2000) & interview with the vampire (2022)

1x22 & 1x07.

something about shows' first season's finale having the main relationship dance and kiss in front of a homophobic crowd in an era that was dangerous, or even illegal, to be with a same-sex partner in public, before (almost) death happens to one of them.

gif credit @sophsun1 (qaf) & @indifferentvincent (iwtv)