The men behind QAF: Queer as Folk executive producers Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman speak frankly about what's PC and who responds best to the show - Interview - Cover Story

The Advocate: If there has been one overriding theme to the show, what has it been, in your view?

Ron Cowen: As we said at the beginning of this venture, it really is the story of boys becoming men. You don't turn into a man overnight. It's a process that occurs over several years, and that is the trajectory of the show.

Daniel Lipman: The characters tell us where to go. For instance, having a relationship may seem right for one character and not right for another. One character might fall in love; the other one never will. The minute we try to force something on a character, it doesn't seem real.

Have the characters seemed as real to you since the beginning as they do now?

Lipman: Some characters. We were very blessed that the main characters spoke to us when we sat down and wrote them. Also, we've been very lucky with this cast. I remember, I was on the set of the second day of shooting the pilot, and it was a real world. These characters were absolutely real. Physically, the actors becoming the manifestation of the characters was very real.

Queer as Folk is showcasing the first HIV-negative-HIV-positive relationship on a television series. Do you feel any sense of responsibility for how that is portrayed?

Cowen: I feel a responsibility to the community, [but] I feel my primary responsibility is to the story we're telling, and hopefully the community can find some truth in the story we're telling.

Lipman: I have to agree with Ron. When we say we're "politically incorrect," we don't mean that we're out to offend anyone; we're out to tell the truth. Sometimes the truth is not pretty--sometimes people behave in flawed ways. But it's human, and we have to go with "human" over political correctness.

Cowen: It's been an interesting learning experience for Dan and me, but I'm starting to feel more and more that there is less and less of "a community," in the sense that all gay people are not the same, like all straight people aren't. There are gay people who want to assimilate and move into the straight world, and there are others who want to stay within the gay community. Those people all have different attitudes and expectations of the show, and it's hard to satisfy everyone.

Lipman: Straight audiences come to it with a lot less baggage.

Cowen: And I believe that the response to our show differs generationally. It's a generalization, but I think that younger gay men in their 20s have a lot more fun with the show than gay men in their 40s who have been through more. We've had more losses and dealt with more prejudices, and we've had a lot of shame issues.

I would think that the voices, both pro and con, would be equally deafening after a while.

Lipman: We do get lots of letters from people who say things like, "I never knew what a gay person was, and I never really liked them, but watching the show has taught me something." I think if you follow the truth of your characters, the specific is the universal. And I think that's what people respond to.

For the full transcript of this conversation with Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman, go to www.advocate.com

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