Peter Paige on why “The Fosters” is “far more subversive” than even “Queer as Folk”

For five seasons on Showtime’s Queer as Folk, Peter Paige played the role of Emmett Honeycutt who was part of a group of gay friends living in Pittsburgh.

Since then, Paige has gone on to create the ABC Family series The Fosters about the lives of an interracial lesbian couple who are married and raising biological and adoptive children together.

While Queer as Folk was quite sexually explicit, Peter told me recently that The Fosters is even more ‘subversive’ in its own way.

‘I was part of Queer as Folk as an actor which was so in your face and kind of openly defiant like, “We’re gay, get over it!’ What I think is kind of incredible about that is that in many ways The Fosters is far more subversive in its very normalcy.

‘I think it’s far more threatening for people to see this family that by all accounts looks and feels like every other family. I’m proud of that.’

Paige created the show along with Bradley Bredeweg (pictured left) and it premiered in June 2013. It has won GLAAD Media Award for outstanding drama series and winning the Teen Choice Award for Choice Breakout Television Show.

‘I’m proud of the complexity and dexterity with which LGBT characters are handled these days,’ he said. ‘We’ve come a long way. We can always do more, we can always do better but we’ve come a long, long way.’

Added Bredeweg: ‘It’s a beautiful thing to know that people are embracing this family as much as we had hoped and loving this family as much as we love them. I love the fact that we’re a show about two people in love and creating a multi-cultural family – that’s really what the show’s about.’