Paige: I know, from doing the "George" story line last season [in which Emmett had a committed relationship with a man in his 60s] how much impact that story had on older gay men, many of whom loved the show but always felt invisible on it. Just the other day, one of the directors' uncles came to set and said, "I just want you to know that to men of my generation, that story meant everything to us. That someone as wonderful as Emmett could find someone like George wonderful sent out such a message." It was something that had never been done on the show before, and it was done with great intrigue and dignity.

What do you think of the notion that many gay men are reluctant to take on elder-statesman roles? That until gay men learn to act like men - in the adult sense - then transition to acting like nurturing and protective older men, we're going to have a culture that doesn't venerate the elderly?

Paige: You pretty much hit it on the head.

Gant: We're such idiots! We're perpetuating a really shitty place to grow old! We're perpetuating a prison. What fools we are. In the same way that Queer as Folk is opening minds with respect to the beauty and the acceptability of this culture to other cultures, we need to redefine what constitutes [our elders].

Certainly the show has raised a number of such issues. Moreover, it's become part of our lives and culture. How does it resonate for each of you?

Paige: I say this with what I hope can be heard as humility, but it really has become a cultural touchstone. There is no reference to gay anything in society at large that doesn't include some reference to Queer as Folk.

Gant: Within the gay community, it's been interesting watching people's expectations evolve, watching them get dashed, get polarized - the people who love it, the people who hate it, the ones who hate it even though they don't watch it. We constantly have to shed the idea that we have some responsibility to the community even though people constantly try to foist that on us. It makes perfect sense [that they do] because this is the only show that we've got. Will & Grace is a whole other thing, and I love Six Feet Under, but they've got four main story lines, one of which is gay; that's definitely not the "gay drama." So this is the one voice people have. I think we need to have an open forum to talk