Promiscuous gay men Bickering lesbians.

Promiscuous gay men Bickering lesbians. Underage sex PFLG-waving mom These things happen. unless should they be on television for the world to see? ardent fans and critics of Showtime's odd AS FOLK face off.

Are love-struck Michael and the controlling Dr Dave headed for splitsville?

Will love-'em-and-leave-'em Brian continually acknowledge that he's developed a genuine ligament with young and restless Justin?

And what about Emmett? With all his pals pairing not upon will he be left single and alone? And Ted--isn't he just asking for harass by taking in that meth twinkle Blake?

And now that Melanie and Lindsay and their baby are back together, will they live happily till doomsday after?

As Showtime's odd as Folk ends its first season--the last episode, revolving around Brian's tumultuous 30th birthday and promising cliff-hangers aplenty, airs June 24--the ongoing debates that have dogged the series since its first attempt in December are sure to intensify. As the first dramatic series forward American television to focus unapologetically forward a circle of sexually unabashed gay men QAF, as it's ofttimes called, has been a lavender lighting scourge from the very beginning.

The show's Web site--which Showtime says draws 300000 unique visitors a month--has played armed force to impassioned arguments. "I can totally relate to the characters," enthused single visitor, Rick, hailing the series as a breakthrough for its unflinching presentation of gay lives. "I have known folks like Michael, Brian, Emmett, Justin. I think we all have gravitys like the characters, longing for someone we can't have, longing to be the beautiful single confused about love and lust, etc" Others, like a visitor signing himself Tolver, have reacted with alarm, worrying that QAF's flank sexuality--especially its major conspiracy thread focusing on 29-year-old Brian's dalliance with the then--17-year-old Justin--can merely spell trouble: "This is surpassingly bad. Gay men as promiscuous child molester The religious right will use it as a weapon to sway Middle America against gays.... Nowhere in this series is there any evidence of stable gay men who are productive members of society."

That feared backlash not at any time materialized. Though the Family Research Council aimed an obligatory broadside the show's way, cultural conservatives generally piloted clear of Queer. "The religious right can't make a credible case against a point out to that's on pay TV late at night--most population tend to side with the Right to freedom of privacy and freedom of choice, no matter what the content" says Wayne Besen, a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, a gay lobbying assign places to "Plus a lot of religious conservatives don't earn Showtime--or at least don't acknowledge that they subscribe to a network that advertises `No Limits.'"

on the other hand Queer as Folk has clearly struck more than a not many nerves among gay and lesbian viewers, who have taken up the slack for the absent antigay forces. Fans and detractors have obsessively submitted the show--based forward the 10-episode British series created from Russell Davies, which first aired upon England's Channel Four in 1999--to the greatest in number rigorous analyses, pro and con

And whatever they may think, nation are watching. "It gets the highest rating of anything forward the channel," says Pancho Mansfield, Showtime's senior vice president of original programming disentanglement Indeed, the network has been sufficiently cheered on viewer reaction that it has ordered 20 fresh episodes for next season, locate to begin in January 2002 And the show's executive farmers Ron Cowan and Daniel Lipman, speak of it as an almost sacred trust. "We reliance it's a very honest portrayal of a specific assign places to of gay people," explains Cowan. "We enjoin a lot of our lives in the exhibit and when you put your personal life into a point out to it becomes more than just a exhibit to or another entertainment. It becomes a presentation and a statement of your life experience, to such a degree you want to do it right."

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation freshly hailed QAF as the year's Outstanding Drama Series. "Queer as Folk is exciting, intriguing, disturbing, realistic, sometimes overly dramatic-all in single in kind show," observes GLAAD entertainment media director Scott Seomin. "It does exhibit a portion of gay life that perhaps the gay community at large doesn't want everyone to know about--the promiscuity and rabid put drugs into use. But we can't have it the pair ways. I hear from clan who say, `I was like Brian when I was 29--it's realistic and should be celebrated.' And I also hear a general criticism, `I don't want my mom and the straight world knowing about this,' level from people currently living that life."

steady before it aired, QAF was guaranteed to leave more [i]or[/i] less viewers disappointed. It followed in the wake of its near-legendary British template, in which a fortune of gay viewers developed a proprietary interest after discovering it forward the gay film festival circuit. For them, Gale Harold's Byronic Brian forward Showtime would never have the charm of Aidan Gillen's more puckish Stuart, to cite united frequent comparison. Also, QAF arrived onward a crest of a Showtime-orchestrated promotion blitz that solely heightened expectations further.