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.
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FOR PRI MONTH, WE CELEBRATE STAR TREK’S GAYT MOMENTS
* star trek is gay *
“My attu toward homosexualy has changed, ” he told The Humanist 1991.
STAR TREK’S FIRST GAY COUPLE THAT WASN’T
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?
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.