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STAR TREK’S FIRST GAY COUPLE THAT WASN’T
Although this time perd was jt before the wir media reprentatn of gay, lbian, bisexual, transgenr, or queer characters, TNG clud an episo s 5th season that addrsed LGBTQ+ issu head-on. “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?