Dpe beg known as a lear terms of genr and racial tegratn, wasn't until 2017 that the first openly gay characters were troduced a Star Trek televisn show. We talk to curator Margaret Weekamp about Star Trek's history wh LGBTQ+ stori and characters.
Contents:
- BRYAN FULLER PRAIS HOW ‘STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE’ PAVED A GAY WAY FOR ‘DISVERY’
- FULLER: GAY CHARACTERS CONSIRED FOR VOYAGER
BRYAN FULLER PRAIS HOW ‘STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NE’ PAVED A GAY WAY FOR ‘DISVERY’
* star trek voyager gay character *
Premierg 2017 to cril and fan acclaim, “Star Trek: Disvery” featured out gay actors (and origal “Rent” -stars) Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cz as chief engeer Pl Stamets and his hband Hugh Culber, rpectively. Together, they ma history as the first out gay uple on any “Star Trek” anchise, and that’s somethg seri -creator Bryan Fuller is very proud of. Jeri Ryan's reformed B drone was troduced to Star Trek: Voyager wh a lot of fan hope and speculatn that she would be gay, but that never panned out.
“My attu toward homosexualy has changed,” he told The Humanist 1991. I have, over many years, changed my attu about gay men and women.”.
Even after his ath, took another 28 years for the first gay character to appear Star Trek’s televisn seri (although y, novel tie-s, ics, fan works, and other non-nonil media featured a markedly improved number of LGBT Starfleet officers). Given that the first openly gay recurrg character on televisn wouldn’t appear until the edy Soap 1977 (and played by Billy Crystal, so not exactly a nuanced character portrayal), pictg one the ‘60s when Star Trek first aired would have been unthkable to most people. Of urse, much of what Star Trek did to highlight actors and characters of different ethnic backgrounds would have been pretty far-fetched for many televisn dienc of the time, too – so what ma gay stori different at the time?
FULLER: GAY CHARACTERS CONSIRED FOR VOYAGER
But still others were spired – enough that Kirk and Spock’s endurg nnectn to one another has remaed a potent symbol of homosexual love for Trek fans. Durg a 20th anniversary nventn 1986, show creator Gene Rodnberry was asked by a foundg member of a Boston LGBT science fictn group (lled, charmgly, the Gaylaxian Network) whether or not the recently announced The Next Generatn would troduce gay characters to Starfleet. We should probably have a gay character.'".
That same year, Gerrold (who’s bt known for wrg the TOS episo “The Trouble Wh Tribbl”) began workg on a script which revolved around two gay characters beg afflicted by an curable, tergalactic blood disease that mirrored the spread of HIV. Dpe this, Rodnberry still seemed mted to makg good on his promise to the Gaylaxians, who by 1990 had begun a letter-wrg petn (spurred partly by Gerrold’s stori of his episo’s mise at var nventn appearanc). In a letter to The Advote, Rodnberry wrote that " the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generatn, viewers will see more of shipboard life some episos, which will, among other thgs, clu gay crew members day-to-day circumstanc.” Unfortunately, Rodnberry died unexpectedly October 1991, and the day-to-day circumstanc he envisned never materialized.