Cowlip said years later they didn't understand why people thought the ending was Britin breaking up. They both agree that they stay together. Here are a couple links.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/queer-as-folk-reunion-reboot-800022/
https://bjfic.livejournal.com/2528384.html
here you go @stricklerssnart! i put some highlighted quotes under the cut for you :) i highly suggest reading both in full, though. they are very good!
Cowan: That’s part of the reason we decided that even though they approached getting married, they realized that it wasn’t for them and it involved too much sacrifice. And not sacrificing was an enormous theme in Queer as Folk. Somebody does not have the right to ask you to sacrifice who you are to earn their love, that was a theme that started with how Brian talked to Justin’s father, who told Justin that he could live in his house as long as he wasn’t gay. And Brian said that wasn’t love but hate. Brian realized in marrying Justin, that Justin would be sacrificing going to New York to pursue his promising art career. And Justin realized in wanting Brian to get married and settle down, he was turning the tiger he fell in love with into a house cat. That was a big sacrifice to ask of Brian, even though he was willing to make it and he loved Justin enough to go through with that. They had a moment of realization where they both knew they were asking too much of each other, which did not mean that they no longer loved each other or that they would never see each other again. I frankly don’t understand where those ideas came from.
Lipman: Brian is the most moral person on the show; he had his own code and was always honest. That rubbed off on Justin; he was Justin’s ideal. The two of them transcended their society around them. They had their own code and realized they didn’t need rings, a ceremony or rituals that others need to know that they love each other. They will always love each other even if they have other relationships with people. That is their core relationship. And they’re confident enough to have that and that’s why they were able to do that. Justin went off to New York, which is an hour away from Pittsburgh. There’s no reason why they wouldn’t see each other. They just weren’t married in the traditional way that Ben and Michael were.
~
Rachael: All writers imagine their characters living their lives long after they write “the end” - how do you see the characters in their futures, and in particular, will Brian and Justin remain a part of each others lives?
Dan: We felt that by the end of the series we had positioned all the characters on the right track for the future. We always thought the overriding concept of the show was "boys becoming men" -- and in Mel and Linz's case, "girls becoming women." So, by the conclusion of the final season, we felt that we had achieved our goal. Even though the show ended in the same place that it began – in Babylon -- the characters had all grown and become very different people.
Rachael: Personally, I think the way it ended was the only way it could have for Brian and Justin at that time, as well as reflecting Brian's interpretation of how relationships didn't have to be 'hetero' to be real. But on the whole, most of the people I speak to hate that Brian and Justin aren't together at the end. Some people are incredibly angry over it, which I suppose goes to show how passionately they feel about the characters. How do you feel about this, and can you explain why you chose to have them part at the end?
Dan: The controversy of the Brian/Justin story in the last episode has always puzzled us. Of course Brian and Justin will see each other again. New York is a brief commuter flight, less than 90 minutes, from Pittsburgh. Some fans seem to focus on that and not what their story is really about. Brian and Justin do not need to say vows to each other to cement their relationship. They're beyond rings (even though Brian sentimentally keeps them), ceremonies and receptions. Just like in their "Covenant" scene, when they declared their own guidelines for living with each other, they know that their relationship transcends rules that others may need. It was, in fact, based on a lyric by Richard Rogers from the title song of his last great musical NO STRINGS: "Let the little folks, who need the help, depend upon vows and such. We are much too tall." Justin going off to New York was a declaration of freedom and a final restatement of Brian's philosophy, that sacrificing who you are for the sake of another or demanding that they sacrifice who they are for you, is not love.
Ron: And although Brian had once considered working in New York, that was before he had his own successful business. And you just don't start up a new ad agency in the most competitive market in the world -- not even Brian. As for Justin, the center of the art world in the States is New York. What young artist wouldn't want to be there?
Rachael: “It's only time,” Brian tells Justin, at the end of the show. It's become such an iconic phrase to the fans, but what does it mean to you, and what did you intend for it to mean from Brian to Justin?
Dan: Regarding Brian's "Its only time" speech: Brian didn't mean that he and Justin would never see each other again. He was merely implying that even if they DIDN'T see each other again they would still know that they were bonded forever. That's what their story was always about. An unlikely romance, an unconventional romance, but a great romance that would embrace them for a lifetime.
Ron: The idea for the speech came from a Shakespeare sonnet we all read in high school --#116. "Love's not Time's fool"...."Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, but bears it out even to the edge of doom."
