Queer as Folk Reboot Is a Go

When I began my coming out saga, one of the TV shows that I not only loved, but which helped me find self acceptance was the American version of Queer as Folk  that ran for five seasons and was based on an earlier British show of the same name.  The show had everyday, normal gay characters and focused on their lives and loves and had gay supportive  characters such as "Debbie" played by Sharon Gless - who was much like the real life Debbie at The Wave in Norfolk, a gay club I frequented regularly when I lived at my house in Norfolk (located a mere 7 blocks away) - and basically depicted gays as normal, everyday people just like everyone else. As The Advocate reports, a reboot of the show based in New Orleans rather than Pittsburgh is in  a "go mode."   I look forward to the show and hope it can help others  - especially in anti-gay "red states" - in their coming out process. Ironically, I am now FB friends with Gale Harold  a "bad boy" character in the show.  Here are highlights from The Advocate:

Groundbreaking gay television show Queer as Folk is coming back to TV in a brand new way.

Peacock, the streaming service from NBC and its sister channels, has given creator Stephen Dunn (Little America) a straight-to-series eight-episode order for a new take on Queer as Folk. The new version of the classic show will "explore a diverse group of friends in New Orleans whose lives are transformed in the aftermath of a tragedy."

The orginal British series was created by Russell T. Davies and starred Aidan Gillen, Craig Kelly, and Charlie Hunnam as three gay men living in Manchester, England in the late 1990s.

That was followed by a Showtime series, set in the American Rust Belt city of Pittsburgh, that lasted for five seasons, from 2000 to 2005. It starred Gale Harold, Randy Harrison, Peter Paige, Hal Sparks and Sharon Gless. It was one of the first American TV shows to focus on the lives of gay men; actresses Michelle Clunie and Thea Gill also portrayed a lesbian couple that's part of the men's circle.

"It is a surreal honor to adapt the notoriously groundbreaking series by Russell T. Davies," Dunn said in a press release. "When the show originally aired, the idea of unapologetic queer stories on TV was so provocative that I felt I could only watch Queer as Folk in secret. But so much has changed in the last 20 years and how wonderful would it be if the next generation didn’t have to watch Queer as Folk alone in their dank basements with the sound muted, but with their family and friends and the volume cranked all the way to the max ..."

As the series is set in New Orleans, we are all hoping to see more people of color, and specifically, Black queer men, on this iteration of Queer as Folk. Including trans and more female characters (and their sex scenes!) wouldn't hurt either. But most of all, we're excited to see queer actors play roles where they can be proudly out and get the focus their stories deserve.