In the fourth episode of Peacock’s Queer As Folk, titled “F#ck Disabled People,” Noah (Johnny Sibilly) throws a party at his home for queer and trans people with disabilities to explore their sexualities. It’s part of his weekly Ghost Fag series, which he launches as a safe space following a tragic shooting at a queer nightclub that happens in the series premiere.tLike the 1999 UK original and the 2000 American remake, the 2022 iteration of Queer As Folk isn’t coy when it comes to sex scenes. The Showtime iteration was the first program to show two men having sex on American television, going so far as to portray acts like rimming and mutual masturbation. In its newest chapter, even as on-screen sexuality has progressed since the 2000s, the sex scenes are just as significant.
During the fourth episode, titled “F#ck Disabled People,” a bilateral amputee barfly named Marvin (Eric Graise) hires a sex worker named Ali (Sachin Bhatt). We see both of their bodies in all their nude glory in a way television hasn’t shown people with disabilities to date. For Graise, who is a bilateral amputee in real life, it was important to portray people with disabilities as sexual beings, in happy, joyous, and non-traumatic moments.
“Filming that scene had tons of emotions attached to it,” Graise says. “It was scary, exciting, sexy, and thrilling. I like to think of myself as a very confident person. I love showing off my disability. I’ve always been so confident with my body. For a good portion of my life, I’ve always had a disability, so it was strange for me to be a part of this production and to feel so vulnerable, and not sure how I would look [on-screen].”
Graise, who says he felt “giddy” and “unbelievably happy” when he saw the final cut of the scene, has played several characters with disabilities, from veterans on shows like Dynasty and movies like The Tomorrow War to the quick-witted Logan Calloway on Netflix’s Locke & Key. He says showrunners often fail to write characters with disabilities with much nuance, which tends to result in those characters appearing tokenistic.
“It’s important to me that the audience sees a fully fledged-out, rounded character who is complicated, just like the other characters,” Graise says. “Marvin isn’t just some piece of furniture. I think what happens sometimes with characters written with disabilities is that they’re there to be inspirational, and to remind the audience that people with disabilities are sweet and nice. I didn’t want that. if that happens, then cool, but it happens so often.”
For that, credits showrunner Stephen Dunn, as well as Ryan O’Connell, who co-wrote the episode alongside Alyssa Taylor. O’Connell himself is a gay man with cerebral palsy. He created, wrote, and starred in Netflix’s Special, which is loosely based on his book, I’m Special: And Other Lies We Tell Ourselves.
“I think that disabled people, especially in queer spaces, are often left off the menu,” O’Connell says. “That’s for a variety of reasons. Number one, spaces are inaccessible. But also, our sexuality is never really considered. I always think that, at birth, I was castrated by society, and I’ve been searching for my dick ever since. It was really an exciting opportunity to write that episode, along with Alyssa and give disabled people the agency, the horniness, the wants, and the desires and have them fulfilled, no fucking questions asked. And I just wanted to show them to be the horny, deviant monsters I know them to be.”
In one Special episode, O’Connell’s character hires a sex worker to take his virginity. In Queer As Folk, O’Connell plays a character named Julian who has sex with a deaf sex worker named Leo (Nyle Dimarco)—however, Julian is unaware of Leo’s profession until after the fact, when he sees a notification on Leo’s phone of a money transfer from his (Julian’s) brother Brodie (Devin Way). O’Connell wanted to rework this plotline because of the lack of sex work representation in media.
“I feel like sex work and the disability community do go hand in hand in a lot of ways,” O’Connell says. “I’ve had many experiences with [sex workers]. I also feel, in terms of sex work, representation is pretty dire, and my experiences have been so positive.”
While Julian isn’t keen on the fact that Brodie hired a sex worker to sleep with him, Marvin continues to see Ali. However, Ali develops genuine feelings for Marvin, which Marvin is initially unable to grasp.
“As humans, we long for connection and intimacy and sex work can provide that,” Bhatt says. “On the flip side, Ali has taught me that dating while in this profession, unfortunately, might be challenging if your partner doesn’t see what you do as work.” (Fortunately, Graise and Bhatt clicked instantly in real life. “We’re both two sassy queens,” Graise says of their chemistry.)
Their sex scene lasts about a minute, but Graise says it took nearly an hour to film. Through several meetings between Graise, Bhatt and the show’s intimacy coordinator, Hanna Hall, they were able to get to the right comfort level to make the magic happen on-screen.
Graise is elated to introduce audiences to a new kind of character with disabilities. Next, he hopes to play more “problematic” characters. “Where’s my disabled villain?” Graise asks, laughing. “Where is my disabled character who has no redeeming qualities whatsoever? I want to be that guy where people are just like, I hated you on that show, and I loved it. That’s the kind of stuff I like. I want to see more.”