You only need to look at 'Queer As Folk' to understand how much queer representation matters

Few series have entered the zeitgeist as much as Queer As Folk.

Much has changed in the past 25 years when it comes to LGBTQIA+ rights -  I don’t worry about having slurs hurled at me from moving vehicles nearly as much as I did even a decade ago, for example. But what exactly can be attributed to such a change in society? 

You’d be correct in pointing out that LGBTQIA+ rights have developed due to years of dedicated queer activism, fighting police brutality and progress at a snail's pace. But we’d be doing ourselves a disservice if we ignore the awesome power of  television. In all seriousness, television has been one of the more visual battlefields for rights and representation for the queer community. And in this grand history, few series have entered the zeitgeist and been an example of this change as much as Queer As Folk.  

Created by Russel T Davies, Queer As Folk opened up to the world the colourfully fractured (c)Anal St and the beating queer heart of gritty Manachester at the turn of the millennium. In 1999, it was one of the first shows to dedicate itself to the everyday drama of gay life in England.

The sliding doors between representation in this seminal TV series and in broader society - where queer representation continues to bloom is still breathtaking stuff… Yet it presents a  conundrum where much has rightly been discussed about the lack of representation within QAF. 

Aside from Nathan’s school friend Donna, the cast and most of the extras are white. It's an unfortunate and uncomfortable truth that the industry at large has only in recent years started to fully embrace diversity in casting in all regards.

But the representation Queer as Folk granted cannot be overlooked, and when we cast a broader look at queer representation at the time, it was leaps and bounds ahead of others, which continued to ostracise and endanger queer lives, both young and old. 

Queer as Folk in 1999

After recently coming home from an opening night at the theatre in a post open-bar haze, I stumbled upon the original series of Queer as Folk on Stan. As a 35-year-old, watching it was both nostalgic and much like looking at high school photos - slightly cringeworthy. 

I can remember tuning in to watch it on SBS in the good old days of free-to-air and not much else to watch. I was all of 15, in my bedroom late at night fiddling with the portable antenna on the box TV I inherited when my folks upgraded to “the latest technology”.

Was it just curiosity that made me watch, or with how long it took porn to load in the days of dial up internet,  a need to find some material to jerk off too? 

Queer As Folk presented something so otherworldly yet, as I now reflect,  something  incredibly familiar. 

At age 15 I was, much like the series's teenage protagonist Nathan, very sexually active with bleach blond tips and all. Like Nathan I had also developed an unhealthy habit of falling  stupidly in love with every older and in no way suitable man that had fucked me. 

Like Nathan, I too was targeted by my peers at school for being “a queer”.

In 1999, when the original series premiered,  representation in Queer as Folk was still a double edged sword, with many negative comments in the press. Series sponsors even rescinded support shortly after the first episode aired, mainly due to the moral police flapping there hands at the flagrant display of gay sex - and yes it was steamy.