Star Trek’s First Gay Couple That Wasn’t - The Stranger

Contents:

• STAR TREK’S FIRST GAY COUPLE THAT WASN’T
• FOR PRI MONTH, WE CELEBRATE STAR TREK’S GAYT MOMENTS
• GAY 'STAR TREK' CHARACTER PROVOK POLARIZG RPONSE

STAR TREK’S FIRST GAY COUPLE THAT WASN’T

But that’s not gog to stop Strange New Worlds om examg what that growth means for everyone the surface “Lost In Translatn, ” the sixth episo of the season, brgs to Strange New Worlds’ sophomore two elements om s but that have been so far missg: a foc on Celia Rose Goodg’s now-Ensign Uhura, who has not been given the spotlight like this sce the seri’ send-ever episo, and a twge of horror takg a leaf out of the playbook the show has already effectively ed s enunters wh the Gorn.

Together, they play the science fictn anchise’s first regularly appearg gay uple aboard the U. And of urse, they'll be fans who say, ‘”Oh, they’re killg off the gays aga!

Ennis: As a pneer Star Trek, terms of beg an out gay man, playg a gay character, a relatnship wh another man, do you see that the unfoldg of havg non-bary characters like Adira and a trans character, even a ghostly versn, how do that make you feel terms of the craft and and our muny? Leonard Nemoy himself gave support 1991, sayg, "It is entirely ftg that gays and lbians will appear unobtsively aboard the Enterprise—neher objects of py nor melodramatic attentn. “My attu toward homosexualy has changed, ” he told The Humanist 1991.

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

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. 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.

GAY 'STAR TREK' CHARACTER PROVOK POLARIZG RPONSE

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. 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.