I first heard about this play some time in the 90s. The "Gay Community" was protesting it because it made gay men look bad in the public eye, or something to that effect. Since I am the kind of person who needs to think for myself and whose opinions are not mockingbird echoes of trendy magazine reviews, I read the play as published in book form.
And I liked it. On one hand, I can understand why most queer folk don't want to be represented by Matt Crowley's characters, or would prefer to be fictionalized in a more "positive light". However, what I liked so much about it was that it was an extremely accurate portrayal of the gay life that I've been exposed to for the last 20 years. ALL of those characters EACH remind me of AT LEAST A DOZEN gay men that I have known then and now. To this day, there are men re-enacting those stereotypes, no matter how much I complain about them. (And when I complain, some one tells me, "those stereotypes are there for a reason") Well, my complaining is really more like loud wishing that there was some thing else out there than what the mainstream gay community has to offer. Even most "radical queer" men are the exact same, but with a different style of clothing according to their financial means and pretense to alternative politics (meaning: whatever notions are "avant-garde popular" at the time).
I watched the entire five seasons of "Queer As Folk" (US version), and found those people a little less real than Mart Crowley's "Boys", and in many cases more offensive.
In all the queer movies/tv shows I've viewed and novels I've read, I'm having a very hard time finding any positive role models, and only a few that I sympathize with or admire, outside of "Dykes To Watch Out For". And before I am accused of internalized homophobia, I have to say that I have indeed met a few queer men and women who I really look up to- I know they are out there, but those kinds of people are often ignored. Until media can do better, at least this play was accurate and honest.