nipples, he was there, and there was something. But to go from that to here in 10 years, it's amazing.

C: There are young kids out there who are seeing this beautiful image of what their lives could be- well there's so much drama too.

P: There is so much drama, and I[ hope that people understand that the show is a drama. It's not the only choice you have as a gay person on how to live your life.

C: When you're supposed to represent a group, you all of a sudden have the idea that there's only one accurate image which you're supposed to portray - as if we would ask that from any other straight, conventional television series.

P: Right. Nobody asks if Once and Again is good for the straights. I don't know They're divorced and were having sex outside of marriage.

And while Queer as Folk has certainly been good for at least some of "the gays," it's also been good for Paige, who says taking on the role of Emmett has been a healing experience.

"There has always been an apology it inherent in who I was and how I presented myself to the world, whether through omission or actual apology or not being willing to take up my space in a room," he says, recalling a trip to France with his mother during which the two walked around the streets of Paris for five hours starving because they were afraid to go into a restaurant. "I don't know what it was for my mother, but for me, it was about being gay and not feeling entitled to take up room. The lack of apology inherent in the show has helped me go, 'Fuck this!' "

Cho echoes the feeling. "Being a minority in Hollywood," says the San Francisco native, "even though it sounds cliché and like you're winning, it's the truth. You feel weird. When you go up for a Bud Light commercial with all of the typical Hollywood looking people, you think - Where do I fit in with this? Once I started doing my own work and I realized that there were people out there that valued it and wanted to hear it, I started to feel comfortable in my own skin and in my space - and started to take up that space. It's a really good thing."