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As a result, Brian often outwardly appears to be Queer as Folk’s villain, while he’s actually secretly protecting others.īrian lives by an uncompromising code of his own making, refusing to conform to the requirements of straight America. He often hurts them, too – as he repeatedly does with Michael – in order to teach a lesson that is ultimately valuable. He’s honest – usually brutally so – and fiercely loyal to those he loves. Adding to his superhero status, Brian repeatedly steps up and does what others refuse to. Like a superhero, Brian is marked out from society and has grown up without having a relationship with his parents, especially his father. His name is Brian Kinney.” When Brian is in a car accident, he reminds his concerned friends, “I’m invincible.” Queer as Folk emphasises time and time again that Brian, like an “earthbound god”, is simply not like other men. On the night he first meets Brian, Justin ascribes something otherworldly and remarkable to him: “I just saw the face of God. His actions inspire Michael and Justin to create their own comic book, Rage: Gay Crusader in season two. Justin’s relationship with Brian gives him the courage he needs to be true to himself.īut it’s through Brian that Queer as Folk elevates these daily acts of heroism to superheroic status. As Brian’s new boy wonder, he realises he has to be true to himself, even when that means living without his family’s approval or with the threat of violence. But in the face of these injustices, Justin only grows stronger. Although his mother grows to accept his sexuality and admire his personal strength, Justin faces increasing pressure from his father to hide who he is and give up seeing Brian. Justin is repeatedly bullied and harassed at school. We see this especially in 17-year-old Justin Taylor’s (Randy Harrison) story arc, as he comes out, confident about who he is and what he wants.

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Michael’s friend Emmett (Peter Paige) orients us in the season one opener, explaining, “It takes real guts to be a queen in a world full of commoners,” and we repeatedly witness Queer as Folk’s characters displaying real guts in their day-to-day lives.

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Across five seasons, the way the series subverts accepted ideas about American heroism as exclusively the domain of straight men is perhaps its most powerful legacy. With their mutant superpowers, the X-Men are outsiders fighting for what’s right in a world that seeks to destroy them for being different.īeyond Michael’s comic book fetish and these important points of personal identification, Queer as Folk is really interesting when it explores the everyday heroics of being queer in a hostile political climate. In particular, there’s a powerful queer subtext in the X-Men comics.

Indeed, the closer you look, the queerer the alternate identities of misunderstood, masked superheroes like Batman, Spider-Man and Superman read, even if they were never intended to be by Bob Kane, Stan Lee and Jerry Siegel. It’s easy to understand the attraction of nerds with secret identities or outcasts with superpowers – figures that provide both an escape from reality and a sense of the extraordinary. That’s a powerful message for young queer people to receive when struggling to find a place in a world that repeatedly tells you that you don’t belong. He is repeatedly unable to tell his co-workers he’s gay, and he lives in daily fear of being unmasked.Īll the 'Queer as Folk' characters display courage on a daily basis. For most of season one, while pursuing a relationship with chiropractor Dr David Cameron (Chris Potter), Michael continues to live a double life, remaining closeted at work. Like all comic book superheroes, Michael has a 'secret identity'. But where Brian is defiantly out, Michael isn’t. Michael has been Brian’s adoring sidekick since high school – they care about and protect each other. That’s where Brian Kinney (Gale Harold) comes in. And three, it’s always good to be part of a dynamic duo.” Two, if you have a good body, you can wear tight clothes. “One, there are a lot of villains out there, so you’d better develop some secret powers. Comic books have taught him some important life lessons:

It’s one of the first things we learn about him, and in the sixth episode of season one, he gives us a little more detail about why for him, as a “gay boy”, a passion for superheroes makes perfect sense. Queer as Folk’s original boy wonder, mild-mannered Michael Novotny (Hal Sparks), is obsessed with comic books.

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