Lots of actors have played gay, but there are still a few things Eric McCormack (Will & Grace) doesn't have to deal with — like hundreds of internet communities devoted to pictures of him naked, licking the backside of a teenaged boy. Welcome to the world of Gale Harold, poised on the brink of mainstream success as the star of Fox's new crime drama Vanished.

There are few straight actors who have played gay quite as long and hard as Gale Harold. If he can break out after playing gay playboy Brian Kinney on Showtime's Queer as Folk, there's really no excuse for any straight actor anywhere to worry about taking on a gritty, gay-themed role ever again. But a number of factors, including a de-gayed bio on Vanished's official website and speculation about how long Harold's new character is going to stay alive, have led many fans to question whether Fox is trying to make his Queer past vanish.

While a network normally would consider it a good thing when its new leading man comes with a ready-made army of obsessed fans and a track record of five years starring in a critically acclaimed, groundbreaking cable drama, in this case, things are a bit different. Why? Because the role that made Gale Harold a fangirl's dream, Brian Kinney, is not your typical boy next door, or even your typical gay boy next door.

Brian Kinney is the gay man whom gay men love to hate, and straight women love to love. He's tall and rich and sexy. He's promiscuous and cynical and hard-drinking and drug-abusing. He's in love (but don't tell him) with the young, fair-haired Justin, and his legions of female fans swoon when they kiss. And dance. And do just about everything you can do on cable, which is just about everything. Harold spent a significant chunk of those five years on Showtime getting naked onscreen, leaving almost nothing to the imagination.

When he took the role of Brian in Queer as Folk, Harold was an unknown stage actor with little experience, none of it in front of the camera. He was lucky enough to be cast with a co-star, out gay actor Randy Harrison, with whom he had Moonlighting-levels of chemistry. He didn't answer questions about his sexual orientation during the first season of Queer as Folk, but eventually gave what must be one of the most apologetic, heterosexual coming-out interviews in celebrity history, in Flaunt magazine in 2002.

Asked by interviewer Karen Rabinovitz if he was gay or straight, Harold replied: “I can't figure out what to do with this question. Most of the gay men I work with assume I'm straight, so. … It's funny. No, it's just … trying to answer this question is hilarious. … I'm straight. I'm begrudgingly revealing it.” He also appeared on Larry King Live later that year, talking about being a straight actor playing gay.

This year, after five years of Queer as Folk, a handful of indie films, and a few television appearances including Law and Order: SVU and the TV movie Martha Behind Bars, Harold landed the lead in Fox's new crime drama Vanished, playing FBI agent Graham Kelton.

Harold's fans, mostly straight women who knew him from his days on Queer as Folk, were understandably excited about his new role. They built websites and formed online forums in anticipation. They created photo galleries of Harold's sex scenes from Queer as Folk, asking, “Hey, Vanished fangirl, wanna see a picture?” They dubbed Kelton “the prettiest FBI agent in FBI land.” And they went out, in the way of fans everywhere, to spread the good news on other websites, including fox.com. A few of those fans began to wonder if Fox was downplaying Harold's role as Brian Kinney. They pointed to his barebones online bio, which simply lists Harold's credits as “appearances,” ranking his 10 minutes on one episode of Law and Order: SVU equally with his five years of starring on Queer as Folk.

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