When the original British version of Queer as Folk premiered in February 1999, I was a painfully shy 15-year-old who hadn’t told anyone I was gay. I watched the first episode alone in my bedroom with the volume turned down so my parents wouldn’t know. I can remember feeling nervous all evening because I knew I was about to see something unapologetically homosexual: back then, even the show’s title felt edgy because the word “queer” had yet to be reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community. But as soon as it burst onto the screen in an explosion of neon lights and thumping club beats, I was mesmerised by scenes of gay men dancing, laughing and getting laid. Canal Street in Manchester’s gay village, where the series was set, seemed like another world to the sleepy corner of south Buckinghamshire I called home.
The new US reboot of Queer as Folk, available in the UK from 1 July on Starzplay, begins in a similar swirl of hedonistic energy. Developed by Stephen Dunn, who previously made the quirky queer horror movie Closet Monster, it relocates the action from Manchester to “Nola”, as its characters call New Orleans, Louisiana. Where the OG Queer as Folk focused on three white cisgender gay guys – sweet supermarket manager Vince (Craig Kelly), flashy ad exec Stuart (Aidan Gillen) and wide-eyed teenager Nathan (Charlie Moloney) – Dunn’s reimagining is more diverse and inclusive.
