`Queer as Folk' is unlike anything ever seen on U.S. television.

Byline: Gail Shister

TORONTO _ They're here, they're queer and they're coming to Showtime.

"Queer as Folk," a controversial new drama that makes "Sex and the City" look like "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood," debuts tonight at 10 ET on the premium cable network whose motto is "No Limits." For the faint of heart, this ain't.

"I knew this piece would be trouble," says former "Cagney & Lacey" star Sharon Gless, "Queer's" only "name" actor, "but it's worthwhile trouble. This is daring, gorgeously written work."

"Queer's" title comes from an old Yorkshire saying: "There's nowt so queer as folk."

(Translation: Nothing's weirder than people. Now there's a news flash.)

Based on Russell Davies' 1999 British hit of the same name, "Queer" follows the lives of a tightly knit group of gay and lesbian friends in their 20s in Pittsburgh.

When "Queer" first aired in the U.K., it caused an uproar for its graphic depictions of sex. After the shock wore off, however, most critics fell in love with the show.

The British version was set in working-class Manchester instead of tonier London because Davies wanted a less polished portrait of urban gay life. Ergo, Showtime's "Queer" is set in the Steel City (filmed in Toronto) instead of New York or San Francisco.

With its X-rated sexual content and bawdy language, "Queer," available to Showtime's 12 million subscribers nationwide, explores territory heretofore…