Okay beside that! Set those things aside and ask yourself the question again. This time you’ll uncover the fundamental theme and experience the show at its core.

In the premier episode, Michael said, “It’s all about sex…” The sex is only the wrapping paper, boys and girls.

Open the package and you’ll find a show that is entirely about friendship, family and relationships — three fundamental things that all people have in common.

By now I hope you’ve realized you won’t find the hottest pictures of Brian or Justin here (well maybe one or two of Brian) or the latest gossip.

But you will find your average guy’s take that has never been to a dance club, a gay ghetto or the world in “general” as depicted by the show. Do I want to experience those places? Absolutely. Will I? I’m suddenly struck with that Enya song, “Only Time” going through my head. Yes, I have led a sheltered life sequestered far, far, away from known civilization.

The dynamic of Brian and Michael’s relationship is very fascinating. The rooftop scene where Brian reaches out for Michael’s hand is one of the most powerful scenes, not only from “Queer as Folk” but I believe in all of television history. Here you have two men, best friends, on many different levels in love with one another and not afraid to show their affection or weaknesses. More was said in that gesture than could ever have been written in words. Okay, so maybe I’m a romantic idealist… deal with it!

Your friends are your friends, they are no matter what. Brian and Michael both accept one another for who they are, faults and all — no questions asked. They are always there for one another, even at times when it seemed that Brian didn’t have Michael’s best interests at heart. It was only Brian’s unique ways of giving Michael the help he needed but didn’t know he needed. Even though Brian has never admittedly returned Michael’s romantic love, I believe he is as much in love as Michael, but is all to aware of his own faults and knows that Michael deserves better and more than he could ever give him in a romantic relationship.

I so identify with Debbie and Michael as I was raised by my mom. Debbie is the kind of person who knows everybody and who everybody knows and who is the heart and soul of this unfair and cruel world. She’s also everyone’s mother, even Brian’s. My theory is that despite her reservations about him and the type of person he was, she “adopted” him into her family knowing the terrible family life that Brian had as a boy and tried to provide a positive family life model for him as well as her own son.

Families don’t have to be mother, father, brother and sister. Your family is anyone you hold dear to you no matter if there is a blood relation or not. Debbie, Vic and Michael (and Brian) form the core of a perfect family. They love and care for one another and they are first and foremost the most important people in each other’s lives.

Families, like people themselves, can come in all forms. With Melanie, Lindsay and Gus you have the perfect new family just beginning. You have two parents who are totally in love with one another that provide a stable loving home to raise their son. When you think of what a parent is, what comes to mind? A mother figure? A father figure? Maybe, but that is only superficial and here we have been delving into much deeper meanings.

A parent is someone who watches over their children, protects them and is their teacher and mentor that guides them along the journey of growing up. It seems to me that we have all that here! More children than we may want to think about don’t even have one parent to love them, let alone two. Gus is a very lucky boy to have the opportunity to have two loving parents raising him. And who didn’t bawl their eyes out at Lindsay and Melanie’s fairy tale wedding?

Growing up is difficult, but when you’re different in ANY way from those around you, it’s multiplied exponentially. You don’t seem to fit anywhere. You’re often teased and made fun of. You feel like an outcast. It’s stressful, painful and very depressing. If you’re lucky, you break out and “find” yourself and the type of people that you feel connected with. Easier said than done. But that is exactly what Justin did the night he visited Liberty Avenue and met Brian. He found someone he could relate to and who didn’t make him feel like he was a freak. In turn, he found a whole world of people that accepted and embraced him for who he is. Justin and Brian are very similar and you could say that Justin is just a younger version of Brian. Debbie said that she thought they were about evenly matched, and she was very right.

Someone like Justin coming into his life is something that Brian probably never gave much thought to. And though he loves Michael, he loves Justin just as much but it took a tragic hate crime for him to realize it. Who couldn’t feel Brain’s pain after the attack? He was helping Justin with his recovery and Jennifer asked him to leave and never see him again. It was at that point when Brian realized just how much Justin meant to him. It’s also interesting to see the growth and almost total reversal of roles in their relationship. After they defined the boundaries of their open relationship, you expected that it would be Brain who would brake them, when in fact it was Justin.

Even without the perfect relationship you can still be happy. Both Emmett and Ted are probably the two most happiest, self confident and self aware people on the show. After years of unrewarding work and being fired, Ted bit the bullet and started his own successful business and brought pal Emmett along for the ride.

With Emmett, what you see is what you get. He doesn’t hold anything back and is totally confident in himself as a person. When his own belief in himself was faultering, Ted and Michael were there to help him and in the process strengthened Emmett’s own perception of himself. If more people were like Emmett, the world would be a much better place. He is truly an inspiration.

When you strip away the language, nudity, sex and drugs that it has been criticized for, you see a completely different show. When I watch “Queer As Folk” I see a show that is deep, meaningful and moving. Each episode leaves you thinking and wanting more. Through its seductive use of all of those elements it draws you in and cleverly envelopes you in its deeper meanings that affect not only gay people, but all human beings. There aren’t many television shows that you can say the same about. What do you see?