Brian Kinney

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Brian Kinney is a fictional character from Showtime's Queer as Folk (US TV series) television show. He is played by Gale Harold. Brian is one of the, if not the, main character(s), and while his best friend, Michael Novotny, could be the considered the protagonist (Michael narrates the pilot episode as well as the series finale), Brian is definitely the hero. The other characters in the show seem to always be affected by his actions, especially his on and off lover Justin Taylor.

Brian, throughout the series, is sexually promiscuous and can usually be found in the back room of the popular gay club Babylon. His biggest fear is to grow old and being in his own words: " a shitty father" to Gus. In the pilot, he takes Justin home and takes his virginity. In the same episode, his son, Gus, is born to a lesbian couple. During the first season, his relationship with Justin is unclear. Brian hates the idea of couples but breaks his own rules for Justin, having sex with him more than once.

After Justin's prom bashing, Brian is traumatized, and cannot face seeing Justin. However, he helps Justin return to normalcy during the second season, both physically and emotionally. To restrict Brian's promiscuity, Justin sets some rules, which Justin breaks when he starts dating Ethan. Brian is upset by Justin's departure, but does not admit it.

During the third season, Brian's success as an advertising executive comes into opposition with his beliefs when he is asked to head up a conservative, anti-gay mayoral candidate's campaign. Though he is initially instrumental in the candidate's rise, he eventually, with Justin, destabilizes the campaign, using his own money to pay for ads. Because of this, Brian loses his job. However, in the fourth season, he founds his own company, Kinnetik. He battles testicular cancer, especially tough because of his narcissism. After beating cancer and completing a bike ride from Toronto to Pittsburgh, Brian reevaluates his life, deciding to take a more active role in his son's life and asking Justin to move back in.

In the fifth season, Justin moves out, frustrated at Brian's inability to form a committed relationship. After a bomb goes off at Babylon, which Brian owns by this season, Brian admits his love for Justin and mends his relationship with his best friend, Michael. Brian proposes to Justin but later tells Justin that he should go to New York to pursue a promising art career. They spend one last night, knowing that even that they are separating for the time being, they still love each other. Brian shows Justin that's he's kept the rings as a symbol of hope that they will have chance to be together again. The series ends with Michael and Brian dancing in the ruins of Babylon which transforms to show it restored as they dance with all their friends, except Justin.

Despite Brian's seemingly uncaring and immoral nature, he is shown as loving his friends and will often make great sacrifices for them, even though he won't admit it. He plans a wedding for Lindsay and Melanie after theirs falls apart, and gives up his parental rights to Gus, so that Melanie and Lindsay will reunite in the first season. He pushes Michael away, so that he will go back to his boyfriend, he also helps Justin recover after a bashing at his senior prom, which Brian attended to please Justin. He gives up his job and money to beat the anti-gay, canditate for mayor, Jim Stockwell , and is willing to give up his loft and nightclub to be with Justin in the final episodes.

Sexually irresistible, beautifully turned out, and highly successful, Brian has nonetheless been an extremely controversial character in the gay and lesbian community. Some people feel that he represents the community poorly, embodying a promiscuity and an inability to grow up that are negative stereotypes among the larger community. Others regard Brian as the most moral character on the show, and one of the most morally uncompromising characters on television.

Brian's popularity was such that the famous "Brian bracelet" - a simple woven bracelet with cowrie shells which became identified with the character - emerged as a totem in the gay community. One of the contestants on the gay dating reality series Boy Meets Boy was seen wearing one.

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Queer as Folk (US)
Production:	Episode List | Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5
Main characters:	Brian | Michael | Justin | Emmett | Ted | Lindsay | Melanie | Debbie | Vic | Ben
Secondary characters:	David | Blake | Ethan | Chief Stockwell | Hunter | Jennifer Taylor | Daphne | Horvath | Drew Boyd
Places & locations:	Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania