'Star Trek: Disvery' to Boldly Feature Gay Characters

Contents:

• ‘STAR TREK: DISVERY’ FANS, HERE’S WHY ‘DPE YOURSELF’ DIDN’T ‘BURY ITS GAYS’
• STAR TREK: DISVERY CASTG UPDATE REVEALS GAY CHARACTER
• COMIC-CON: 'STAR TREK: DISVERY' GO ALL WH GAY STORYLE -- AND THERE'S A 'RENT' CONNECTN!
• STAR TREK: DISVERY STS 3 ACTORS, ADDS GAY CHARACTER
• FIRST OPENLY GAY STAR TREK TV CHARACTER REVEALED
• STAR TREK STAR WILSON CZ ON THE SHOW’S QUEER APPEAL AND HOW GAY LOVE N SAVE THE UNIVERSE
• FOR PRI MONTH, WE CELEBRATE STAR TREK’S GAYT MOMENTS
• ‘STAR TREK: DISVERY’ MA GAY LOVE EXPLIC LAST NIGHT, MATCHG RED PAJAMAS

‘STAR TREK: DISVERY’ FANS, HERE’S WHY ‘DPE YOURSELF’ DIDN’T ‘BURY ITS GAYS’

The first openly gay characters the Star Trek televisn universe weren’t troduced until the first season of Star Trek: Disvery 2017. (Although is worth notg that the 2016 film Star Trek Beyond is tablished that the Hika Sulu of the Kelv Timele, portrayed by John Cho, is gay — a nod to Gee Takei, who origated the role of Sulu Star Trek: The Origal Seri and publicly me out as gay 2005. Hugh Culber, portrayed by out actors Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cz, are the first openly gay characters and the first gay uple portrayed the central st of a Star Trek tv show.

STAR TREK: DISVERY CASTG UPDATE REVEALS GAY CHARACTER

There is one disappotg moment where seems that Disvery is playg to the “bury your gays” trope wh the (spoiler alert! The team behd the show sist that his short-lived ath isn’t a “bury your gays” moment, wh executive producer Aaron Harberts sayg an terview wh IndieWire: “It was sential that this crime not be gratuo. He’s not killed bee he’s gay.

In the mid- to late-1980s, a group of science fictn fans formed a group lled the Gaylactic Network wh the tly credible slogan, “Out of the closet and to the universe. “As var groups of gay and lbian science fictn fans, like the Gaylactic Network, start to ph that they wanna see more posive reprentatn, Star Trek seems like a really likely place bee had been so out ont terms of posive pictns of Ain Amerins, Asian Amerins, women learship rol, ” Margaret explas. There are nflictg acunts on whether Star Trek creator Gene Rodnberry promised that there would be an out gay character Star Trek: The Next Generatn (1987-1994), but ultimately there isn’t.

COMIC-CON: 'STAR TREK: DISVERY' GO ALL WH GAY STORYLE -- AND THERE'S A 'RENT' CONNECTN!

And while this episo was very clearly Star Trek’s foray to a “gay rights” episo, left many disappoted.

In 1992, ed genr inty as an allegory for homosexualy, but watchg today, you n’t help but wish uld have treated the ia of beg non-bary not as an allegory but as an ia to explore rpectfully and of self. Disvery, which premiered September of 2017, is notable for beg the first Star Trek seri to feature openly and explicly gay ma characters played by LGBTQ+ actors, like Pl Stamets (played by Anthony Rapp), Dr.

“My attu toward homosexualy has changed, ” he told The Humanist 1991.

STAR TREK: DISVERY STS 3 ACTORS, ADDS GAY CHARACTER

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.

FIRST OPENLY GAY STAR TREK TV CHARACTER REVEALED

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.

STAR TREK STAR WILSON CZ ON THE SHOW’S QUEER APPEAL AND HOW GAY LOVE N SAVE THE UNIVERSE

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.

FOR PRI MONTH, WE CELEBRATE STAR TREK’S GAYT MOMENTS

Dpe the oddns of a metaphor for gay rights that volv what is ostensibly a heteronormative uple at the center, Soren’s story is still the clost that ‘90s Star Trek ever me to addrsg issu and them specific to the LGBT rights movement, particularly the ia of nversn therapy.

The Natnal Associatn for Rearch & Therapy of Homosexualy, an anizatn that still promot this harmful practice, was found that same year 1992.

‘STAR TREK: DISVERY’ MA GAY LOVE EXPLIC LAST NIGHT, MATCHG RED PAJAMAS

I mean, he was clearly gay or queer or however you want to say . Acrdg to fan mors, early drafts of the screenplay for Star Trek: First Contact ma some mentn of a mor character, Litenant Hawk, beg gay, which was quickly nied by producer Rick Berman (a supposed first draft that surfaced onle refers to Hawk as a naive young Ensign, not a Litenant).