Still, while the two agree that the state of gays on television has vastly improved over the past several years, there's still a long way to go. Says Paige,"I'd love to look back at Queer as Folk and think, Isn't that quaint? Isn't that charming? We thought we were so cutting-edge. Now it's about integration."

C: Oz is hot.

P: I get that Oz is hot. But in saying so, I'm admitting my own fucked-up relationship to rape. That's all it is!

C: There's some tenderness.

P: I love you. You' re my bitch.

C: Well. Oz is not queer. Oz is about straight guys.

P: Oz is about power.

C: I would never include it in the pantheon of gay culture. Just because men are having sex doesn't t mean that it's queer.

P: I always compare our show to Shaft.

C: Oh, yeah!

P: The black representation in cinema started as minstrels and then they went through the sainthood years with Sidney Poitier - God bless him, this is no disrespect to him - and then came the Shaft years, which is when they were like, "Fuck off! I'm entitled to be whoever I want and step up to the table." That's my own experience of Queer as Folk. We've gone from the martyr-sainthood years into...

C: Cleopatra Jones!