KEITH CHARLES as portrayed by Mathew St. Patrick on Six Feet Under (2001-2005)
Six Feet Under came out around the same time I did. I was hungry for content with gay characters, and we had HBO so I tuned in. And it's another show I watched regurlarly, yet cannot recall much of the storyline or plot points. But I do remember there was a really good looking Black gay man in a relationship with a white guy. And, we got to see their love evolve, ebb and flow over multiple seasons. The idea of gay relationships was very novel to me at the time, and it was something I had not yet experienced. I knew gay people, and gay adults. But this was the "don't ask don't tell" era; sexuality was rarely confirmed or discussed in even the most flamboyant examples. So I turned to TV to try to understand the nuances of two men falling in love. SFU ran concurrently to Queer As Folk, which I secretly watched religiously. Whereas QAF was a gay centered show that was about two inches from being pornagraphic, SFU was not as explicit and meant that I could engage with the show more freely and publicly. Both shows were in very white, perhaps inexiplicably so, universes. I was so thirsty for gay content I didn't care much, to be honest. But in hindsight, especially as I contemplate many Black gay men's obsession with the gaze of the white gays, I wonder what it would have meant for me to be introduced to romantic relationships between two Black gay men at a younger age.