Justin is teased by many of the male students at his school who suspect he is gay, and he spends most of his time with his best friend Daphne Chanders.

After his prom, he is bashed by a fellow student, Chris Hobbs, resulting in a two-week coma, and brain damage that limits the use of his hand.

Justin is accepted to Dartmouth College but opts to go to the Pittsburgh Institute of Fine Arts (PIFA) to pursue his dreams.

He continues his arts degree at PIFA and with Brian's friend Michael, creates a gay superhero comic called Rage, with stories often based on their own lives.

After a disastrous experience at a party, he is forced to accompany his boss to a location where a number of men try to rape him, he finally quits his job and accepts Brian's financial assistance.

Justin starts a relationship with Ethan Gold, a fellow student and talented violinist, when he feels Brian isn't giving him the love and affection he wants.

Justin drops out of college after a disagreement with the head of the internship program when it is discovered that he has been having sexual relations with his boss, Brian, and sabotaging Chief Jim Stockwell's ad campaign.

In 2007, Justin was voted number 3 on the list of the top 25 gay television characters of all time by AfterEllen's brother site AfterElton.

[3] The site called him "one of television’s most fully realized gay teenaged characters, Justin Taylor was 17 years old when Queer as Folk debuted.

Over the five seasons the show ran, he started a Gay-Straight Alliance at his high school, was brutally gay-bashed at his prom, had to learn how to use his right hand again during his first year of art school, created a successful underground gay comic, fought the election of a homophobic mayor, opposed an anti-gay statewide ballot proposition, and achieved acclaim as an artist.

Portrayed by out gay actor Randy Harrison, Justin was never one for agonizing over his sexual orientation or struggling with coming out.