Readers' Choice:
The Top 25 Gay TV Characters Revealed!

Showtimes’s Queer as Folk wrapped up its 5-year run in 2005, but the anti-hero of the show, Brian Kinney (Gale Harold), still managed to win the most votes from AfterElton.com readers.

What can we say about Jack MacFarland, or “Just Jack!” as he often referred to himself. And when it came to every possible gay stereotype, the boy hit the bullseye each time.

Vain and self-absorbed? Check Flighty? Check. Catty? Check. Oversexed. Definitely check. Naturally, he even obsessed over pop culture divas. Who can forget the time he met Cher in person and mistook her for a drag queen? “You're not that great, Mr. Sister. I do a better Cher than you." He realized his mistake when she slapped him and, referencing her iconic line from Moonstruck, told him to “snap out of it.” At which point he promptly fainted.

And yet for all the negative stereotypes Jack embodied, Sean Hayes managed to make his character completely endearing and, yes, strangely palatable for straight audiences. Hayes earned seven Emmy nods and one win for his over-the-top portrayal. No surprise then that two years after Will & Grace went off the air, this comic creation would still rank as number two on our list. The boy is simply unforgettable.

Showtimes’s Queer as Folk wrapped up its 5-year run in 2005, but the anti-hero of the show, Brian Kinney (Gale Harold), still managed to win the most votes from AfterElton.com readers. It’s likely that if there’d been a vote for least popular gay character, he’d have won that, too. That’s partly because Brian Kinney pretty much wins at everything he does, and partly because the character is a very polarizing one in the gay community.

Handsome, arrogant, successful, and slutty, Brian spent five seasons running from love, almost-but-not-quite selling his soul for money and power, and drinking, drugging, and clubbing while trying to hide most of his good deeds – and the fact that he had a heart – from everyone around him. All of those contradictory qualities might make for good drama, but they don’t make Brian Kinney the best representative of the gay community in TV history. His character was often criticized for perpetuating negative stereotypes about gay men, even while his bad boy persona won him passionate fans.

Brian wasn’t just a bad boy, though; he was considerably more complex than that. The show included storylines in which he fathered a child for a lesbian friend, master-minded the downfall of a homophobic politician, and gave up power and financial success trying to bring the killer of a teenaged gay hustler to justice. He even ultimately admitted he’d fallen in love. And he did it all while wearing Prada and pretending not to give a damn. Really, other than the promiscuity, drug abuse, and anti-social behavior, what’s not to love?