The Case for Honesty in Homosexual Art
By Alejandro Villa Vásquez
Before shows like “Queer as Folk” and “The L Word” garnered infamy for their softcore-porn portrayals of gay and lesbian sex, no instance of homosexual film or television had successfully punctured the mainstream and (soon to be) unfashionably heterosexual conscious of the TV-watching American public. “Will & Grace,” with its gorgeously corporate cast of gay and straight Manhattanites, began to fascinate audiences when it premiered in 1998, so much so that it was resurrected after eleven years in the graveyard of primetime TV. But “Will & Grace” and its basic-cable virtues could never dive into the slutty depths like Queer as Folk” or the “The L Word.” The latter two were sometimes pornographic to the point of frightening.