The Queers Behind QAF
Special to 365Gay.com
by Dennis Cambly

Behind every great queer there is a queer.  Well, that may not be exactly the way the old saying goes, but it is equally true.

If the North American 'Queer As Folk' had been produced and written by non gays it probably would have looked more like Jack Tripper does West Hollywood and be little more than another series with some gay characters for a straight audience.

That Ron Cowan and Daniel Lipman are behind it has made all the difference.

"We made the series for a gay audience," Cowan says. "It's great that there is a large straight audience, but that has been an unforeseen hidden benefit."

This week, QAF begins its second season on Canada's Showcase network.  It began earlier this month in the US on Showtime.

Cowan and Lipman have been partners in life and partners in writing for more than 25 years, making them one of Hollywood's power couples.

They have a history of pushing the envelope on American television.

The couple created and wrote the NBC drama series "Sisters," and the groundbreaking television movie about AIDS "An Early Frost."

Their first episode of Sisters opened with an extended discussion of multiple orgasms. That intro was subsequently axed by NBC, creating three minutes of black screen. 

"Fifteen years ago when we did Early Frost, we were not allowed to show the two guys even touch," Cowen remembers.

"They couldn't kiss, they couldn't even hold hands. Aidan Quinn played a character named Michael who had to tell his parents that he had AIDS and that he was gay -- they didn't even know that he was gay. His grandmother was very supportive when he and his lover came to visit, and we had a line where Sylvia Sidney turned to her grandson and said, ''I like your friend.'' 

But NBC's censor said, ''She can't say that line, because that supports the homosexual lifestyle.''

On the other hand, the flamboyantly gay character who was dying of AIDS was allowed to say anything he wanted, ''because he's going to die," the censor explained.

Cowen and Lipman won Emmies for both "Sisters" and "An Early Frost," and a Best Series award for "Frost" from the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD). 

"Frost" also won the coveted Peabody Award and was nominated for a Golden Globe.

"Queer As Folk" pushes the envelope further.

Lipman said, "You can't do this project and not go all the way. And it isn't even in the graphicness of the sex or the language; it's in the characters too -- especially the character of Brian, who is so unapologetic, who is a gay character who has balls, who fucks, who takes drugs, who is not sick, and who doesn't need to apologize. This is a character unlike commercial gay characters, who are either eunuchs or clowns. Those are nonthreatening gay characters. To many people, Brian is a threatening gay character. That's why people have the reactions they do."

Cowan was asked recently if there is one thing he could pinpoint as the reason for the success of the series.

"I think they like the characters, and the actors, and, of course, the stories. I think they like the humour. I think they like the production values, the music, the dancing and all the production side of it. But first and foremost, I think they really just like the characters. When you scrape away everything else, it's a family show. This is just a family that has chosen each other. It's not the family you were born with; it is the family you chose."

He also has little time for the criticism about too much sex and drugs.

"I guess there is always going to be some straight backlash. Although I have to tell you, I haven't heard all that much about the religious right condemning our show too loudly. And I expected it to be scary... I guess I thought that gay people would really like the show because it was funny. Not to pat myself on the back, but I'm thinking it's a fairly intelligent, witty show; it's clever and the characters are easy to relate to. I get kind of distressed when I hear, "Oh, they're gay stereotypes, there's too much sex, the sex is gratuitous."

"Frankly, we do the sex, at least I'm doing the sex on the show, and I don't mean to sound pretentious, but I'm doing it for more political reasons than titillation. I feel that we've all seen straight people having sex in "R" rated movies since we were born, but we've never seen gay people having sex, so I think we've got about 35 years to catch up to. I think it's our turn to see us having sex. And if people don't like it, 'fuck 'em.' I mean I really feel that way.

"I want straight people to keep seeing us having sex until they think it's absolutely boring, till it's so mundane and nothing, that they don't care anymore. I think that's when we've taken a step forward. I want the gay sex to be boring."