In 1999, “Queer as Folk” burst into prime time on British television. Overnight, its creator, Russell T. Davies, became his country’s most famous gay writer.
The first episode featured a 29-year-old man having sex with a beautiful 15-year-old boy, an image that produced just what Davies wanted: nearly universal outrage.
Writing in this newspaper, Sarah Lyall described “an explosion of graphic language, male nudity and explicit sex guaranteed to offend as many people as it enthralled.” The scandalized ranged from conservatives who thought it glamorized gay sex (it did) to gay activists outraged by its stereotypes: promiscuous, drug-taking young men seducing underage boys — and having the time of their lives.