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The question of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) characters in the Star Trek universe has been a subject of debate since at least the planning stages of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. That year, in response to a question from a fan at a science fiction convention, series creator Gene Roddenberry stated that there would be gay characters in the upcoming new series. What has followed since then has been a controversy, among fans, as to how much of this promise has been fulfilled within the television spinoffs of the Star Trek world.

Star Trek: The Original Series

The Original Series did not have any LGBT characters, as the censorship rules governing American network television prohibited any mention of homosexuality as they were modeled after the Hollywood Hays Code - in both it was seen as a sexual perversion, reflecting the prevalent belief of that era. Aside from the Kirk/Spock-subtext, and the possible sexuality of Captain R.M. Merrik in Bread and Circuses, the closest thing was the last episode of the series that aired in 1969 as tacit endorsement of feminism. In the episode Captain Kirk switches minds with a woman, and the possessed Kirk behaves in a more effeminate manner. In the episode The Trouble With Tribbles, tribbles are described as "bisexual," but this is not a reference to their sexuality; instead it means that they are hermaphroditic: "reproducing at will". In terrestrial biology, "bisexual reproduction" implies a reproductive system requiring two distinct sexes to operate.

In 2005, George Takei, who portrayed helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu on the show, became the first major actor on any Star Trek series to come out as gay.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

None of the Star Trek films or television series have had any official LGBT characters. Instead, Star Trek fans have debated the sexual orientation of certain characters and whether or not a particular storyline is offering a critique of homophobia. The first of these television story-lines was a Star Trek: The Next Generation (TNG) episode that was intended to air in 1988 but never got beyond the script stage. Among fans this script is known as "The Gerrold Affair".

David Gerrold is a science fiction writer, among whose credits is having written the script for the popular original Star Trek episode titled "The Trouble with Tribbles". In 1987 he was with Roddenberry when he promised that TNG would integrate LGBT characters into the series and thus drafted a script for an episode that would have had two male Enterprise crew-members that were a couple, in the backdrop of an allegory about the mistreatment of people infected with AIDS. The title of this unproduced episode was "Blood and Fire". Gerrold has since said that while many of the TNG cast and crew (including Roddenberry) were supportive of the story-line, it met stiff opposition from the studio and the script never made it into production. The precise reason why the script was never produced remains in some dispute.

In the book Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Continuing Mission the author puts the blame on the studio: "Much of the change in perception of the script resulted from Paramount's concern that because the series was syndicated, in some markets it might air in the afternoon when younger viewers would be part of the audience." The October 1992 issue of Cinefantastique magazine laid much of the blame for the fate of the script at the door of executive producer Rick Berman. Fans still debate what role Roddenberry had in the fate of this script. Roddenberry publicly supported the idea of having gay characters on the show, and in internal meetings about "Blood and Fire" he is paraphrased by Herbert Wright as having said,

"It's the 24th century. By that time nobody gives a shit! It's an issue of the 20th century and maybe the 19th century, but it has nothing to do with the 24th century. By that time it's your choice of whoever you want."

Yet, other fans accuse Roddenberry of hypocrisy by allowing studio types such as Berman and Leonard Maizlish (Roddenberry's lawyer) to order rewrites of the script that removed the gay characters, and then were still nervous about the public reaction to an episode that offered a social critique of the hysteria that surrounded the AIDS epidemic. Other fans have suggested that petty office-politics, including a labor dispute between Gerrold and Roddenberry, prevented the script from getting produced and not any sort of bigotry or hypocrisy on the part of Roddenberry or the studio. In a 1991 story by The Advocate, Ernest Over (Roddenberry's gay male Secretary), erroneously claimed that the script portrayed one of the men in the relationship as feminine and the other as masculine). Gerrold was apparently so annoyed by this remark (and other misstatements about the quality of his work) that he sold copies of the script at conventions so that fans could judge for themselves; he donated most of the proceeds to the AIDS Project Los Angeles. While "Blood and Fire" never made it past the script phase, TNG did air episodes that seemed to have LGBT characters in them, and seemed to be offering a critique of homophobia.

In the pilot of the series "Encounter at Farpoint" it is common to see male extras in the background wearing skirt-style Starfleet uniforms that, up to this point in the franchise, had been exclusively seen on female characters. Starfleet uniforms in the original series were clearly gender specific; as are all currently existing military uniforms. Some fans have suggested that the wardrobe choice for men was to balance the dressing of Tasha Yar exclusively in the pants/jumper uniform of the male characters. However, some fans suggest that these characters imply a more flexible gender choice in the Star Trek universe and these may be transexual members of Star Fleet. After the first season this uniform option for men is not shown; perhaps due to studio pressures similar to those mentioned above.

The first episodes to show a well defined 'debated' character was titled "The Most Toys" (1990) and is one of the most contentious because fans debate the existence of any homoerotic subtext to the episode. In the episode Commander Data is kidnapped by a criminal art collector that some fans have read as being a gay villain based on the research done by the cultural critc Vito Russo in his book titled The Celluloid Closet. One of Russo's conclusions was how popular culture used gender inversion as a coded way of depicting homosexuality by having male or female characters "act like" the opposite sex. In the episode, the art collector has effeminate mannerism, artistic friends, and he tells Data, "Personally, I'd be delighted to see you go around naked. I assume you have no modesty." Commander Data himself, despite technically being asexual, is for all intents and purposes heterosexual, given that he had heterosexual sex with Tasha Yar, and briefly dated a female crew member. In "Inheritance", an android simulation of his creator's wife, upon hearing Deanna Troi's name, assumes her to be his girlfriend.

In a 1990 episode about love, "The Offspring", Data becomes a father and the other crew-members seek to explain to the daughter the facts of life. In one scene Whoopi Goldberg was successfully able to change her character Guinan's dialogue from "when a man loves a woman" to "when two people are in love", but when an attempt was made to have a gay couple in the background of the scene, producer David Livingston was contacted and stopped the last minute attempt from occurring. Fans do not dispute that this bit of dialogue has implications for sexual orientation as it asserts that by the twenty-fourth century, society will have evolved to the point where the gender to which a person is romantically attracted is not considered important. Yet, the reports that Livingston pulled the plug on any attempt to having gay crew-members in the background sent a mixed message to fans about how far the society had evolved beyond homophobia. Fans would also note that in future Star Trek television spin-offs, the dialogue would often refer to love as something between a man and a woman.

Also in 1990, in the script for the episode "Captain's Holiday", a throwaway direction in the script details a holiday resort, Risa, in which "couples predominate, with the spectrum of sexual orientations being evident." However, the actual episode only shows heterosexual couples.

In the 1991 episode titled "The Host", Dr. Beverly Crusher (played by Gates McFadden) fell in love with Odan, the (male) Trill Ambassador, only to break off the romance when the ambassador changes bodies or host into a female. Fans debated if Dr. Crusher broke off the affair because she could not handle being romantically involved with a woman, or because she could not handle a relationship with an alien species that would change its gender. The dialogue that Crusher speaks, about a plea for a day when humanity's ability to love would not be so limited, could be interpreted as a statement supporting an end to homophobia (suggesting that it still existed in the utopian future) or an end to a fear about human-Trill relationship. A later episode titled "Liaisons" (1993) explored a similar theme when a male alien has a love affair with Captain Picard, while disguised as a woman, but as was the case in "The Host", there is no sign of love when the alien changes gender. These episodes only increased a campaign by fans, especially LGBT fans, to integrate LGBT characters onto the series and offer a strong criticism of homophobia. In a 1991 interview with The Humanist, Roddenberry talked about being a heterosexual man who had to overcome his own homophobia:

"My attitude toward homosexuality has changed. I came to the conclusion that I was wrong. I was never someone who hunted down 'fags' as we used to call them on the street. I would, sometimes, say something anti-homosexual off the top of my head because it was thought, in those days, to be funny. I never really deeply believed those comments, but I gave the impression of being thoughtless in these areas. I have, over many years, changed my attitude about gay men and women."

Roddenberry also promised that in the upcoming fifth season of TNG gay crew members would appear on the show (The Advocate). Other stars of the franchise chimed in, with Leonard Nimoy (who played Spock) offering his support in a 1991 letter to the Los Angeles Times:

"It is entirely fitting that gays and lesbians will appear unobtrusively aboard the Enterprise — neither objects of pity nor melodramatic attention."

However, Roddenberry died soon after his interviews, Ernest Over was fired, and the announced plans to have a gay crew member on TNG (rumors suggested it would be a male nurse) never materalized. Control of the Star Trek franchise fell to men such as Rick Berman. While no gay crew-members did appear on TNG, one episode was aired that directly addressed the subject of sexual discrimination in the Star Trek universe.

In 1992 the episode titled "The Outcast" aired with a story of Commander William Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes) where he falls in love with Soren who is a member of an advanced humanoid alien race called the J'naii. The J'naii were all androgynous and viewed the expression of any sort of male or female gender, especially sexual liaisons, as a sexual perversion. When the affair between Riker and Soren is discovered, the J'naii diplomats force Soren to undergo psychotectic therapy (read brainwashing). The intention of the episode was to stop the letter writing campaign and criticism from fans wanting to see action taken on the public promise Roddenberry made in 1987 and 1991 to integrate LGBT characters into the series. To its credit, Soren does get the chance to defend her right to love another adult life-form irrespective of sex, but the episode left many fans feeling as if the series should have offered a better social message than one with androgynous aliens (who are never seen again). It is worth mentioning that the character of Soren was played by actress Melinda Culea, and in fact, all of the main J'naii characters were played by females.

Frakes felt that Soren should have been played by a male, and thus when they kiss it would have had the social commentary akin to the original Star Trek series that aired the first interracial kiss on network television. Frakes and fans felt that having all the J'naii played by female actors undermined the social commentary of the episode and created a sense that homosexuality was something brought onto the Enterprise by fascist lesbians. Despite the criticism, Berman felt that this episode would end all criticism among fans about the gay issue. Yet, Roddenberry's public statements had raised the expectations among fans who felt that the studio was forgetting about the Roddenberry promise in favor of a cop-out with plausible deniability.

Ironically, the first same-sex kiss was used as a joke. In 1992 the episode titled "A Fistful of Datas" the holodeck program of the Wild West will only end when Data, as the female saloon owner, throws himself into Worf's arms and gives him a kiss. A similar usage of homosexuality for comic relief came with the character known as Q who in "Tapestry" it implied that in an alternative universe he might have been Picard's lover or other bits of diologue where Q would mention that he could he appeared as a woman.

When the 1996 TNG film Star Trek: First Contact was in the production stages, a rumor circulated that one crew-member named Lieutenant Hawk (played by Neal McDonough) would be identified as gay in some subtle way. The Daily Mail and the Gay and Lesbians Alliance Against Defamation reported on the rumor, but Berman quickly released a press statement that there were no LGBT characters in the film. Although a few years later in Andy Mangels' and Michael Martin's novel Section 31: Rogue Lieutenant Hawk was established as a gay character. Some fans have speculated that the cameo played by openly gay director Bryan Singer in Star Trek: Nemesis could be read as a gay crewmember, in light of the sexuality of the director, although the sexuality of the Enterprise Bridge Operations Officer is never established.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (DS9) débuted in 1993, some fans were wondering if LGBT characters or a social commentary about homophobia would exist in this new series.

In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1993–1999) all the major characters were officially heterosexual, but fans debated what was the unofficial sexual orientation of three characters based on story-lines, portrayals, and dialogue in certain episodes.

As an aside, a possible explanation of the absence of gay characters in the Trek Universe is the back story for the "genetically enhanced" Julian Bashir Chief Medical Officer of Deep Space Nine. In the fifth season episode, "Doctor Bashir, I Presume?" it is revealed that the Doctor was born mildly retarded and his parents subjected him to genetic engineering. The episode revealed a long history of genetic engineering within the Federation. It has been oft-speculated (by some conservative fans) that the Federation had used an engineering process to eliminate the 'gay gene' and thus ensure all humans and space aliens are heterosexual. This theory has never been confirmed by any Star Trek staff, and it would seem to conflict with the situational bisexuality that seemed to exist in Deep Space Nine.

The most debated character was Elim Garak (played by Andrew Robinson), an exiled Cardassian who operated a tailor's shop on the space station. The speculation was that the writers were trying to slip in subtle hints about this character's bisexuality. He had a slightly effeminate voice and mannerisms. His career choice was seen as effeminate and a subject of scorn by other, more macho Cardassians, and he had close friendship with Julian Bashir (played by Alexander Siddig). The two-part episode "Improbable Cause" and "The Die Is Cast" showed Garak's connections to the criminal underworld (with an effeminate extraterrestrial who made poisons out of perfume chemicals) and he had a shady relationship with a former mentor (Enabran Tain, who was revealed to be Garak's father toward the end of the series) that was often spoken of in coded ancient Greek terminology. Eventually the character was given a female love interest, and his coy friendship with Julian Bashir lost its mystique. Nevertheless, many fans felt that Garak was bisexual, if not gay (particularly considering he often indicated that he did not welcome Tora Ziyal's interest in him as anything other than a friend). (Though officially, it was because he didn't want an innocent like her getting mixed up with a shady character such as himself). Robinson himself was rather coy about the sexual orientation of the character. In the book "A Stitch In Time" and in an Amazon.com interview he stated that he played Garak as being bisexual, while at other times he stated that he felt that Garak was omnisexual.

After Garak, the debate often centered around the shape shifter and head of security on the space station named Odo (played by Rene Auberjonois). While he was never effeminate and on several occasions expressed romantic interest in members of the opposite sex, episodes that focused on his life and other shape shifters (or "changelings") were often seen as an applicable allegory to being gay. The 1999 episode titled "Chimera" had Odo meeting "Laas" (Garman Hertzler, a.k.a. J. G. Hertzler), an another (more avowed) shape shifter visits the space station, was peppered with dialogue about the need of shape shifters to be discreet and not to parade around the station in "changeling pride parades" with Laas acting as the "militant" shapeshifter who views Odo as an Uncle Tom. Odo does link with this Laas, who encourages them to link in public. In other episodes (notably "A Simple Investigation") Odo is heard to explicitly describe linking as a sexual experience. Laas is never seen again after the episode and it is possible that he died as a result of the AIDS like virus that subsequent episodes revealed that Odo spread to any changeling that he linked up with. However, one of the series-running storyarcs was Odo's unspoken love for the female Kira Nerys, which was openly stated at the beginning of season 3 but which some fans feel was intimated in subtext since the first episode. (It should be pointed out that the character of Odo is asexual, though Odo chooses to manifest in a male shape.)

However, it would be the Trill female named Jadzia Dax (played by Terry Farrell) who gave fans the first romantic same-sex kiss in Star Trek television history. In the 1995 episode titled "Rejoined", Jadzia considers reuniting with another female Trill, Dr. Lenara Kahn. Originally the script called for Dr. Kahn to be played by a male actor, but it was changed because the producers felt that the audience would understand the Trill taboo being violated if it involved two women. The Dax and Kahn symbionts had been married, while the Dax symbiont was joined to a male host and the Kahn symbiont was joined with a different female host. However, by reuniting the two Trill would be violating a Trill taboo against re-establishing relationships of past hosts. Hence, the two women agree to part ways at the end of the episode and Jadzia Dax would return to dating men. However, none of the crewmembers express any disgust or loathing of the brief lesbian affair, and Capt. Benjamin Sisko's conversation with Jadzia makes it clear that the gender of Dr. Kahn is a non-issue. It was also notable that with the video featuring "Rejoined" on its debut VHS release, various countries gave the video a rating of that above a standard Parental Guidance rating. As a result, this tape was the first Trek release to be rated above any standard PG rating in almost every country that it was released (though a later video in the Deep Space Nine series was given an even higher rating by most boards, due to extreme violence in one episode).

While "Rejoined" was a continuation of the gender identity themes explored in "The Host", the DS9 series did allow otherwise heterosexual characters to become gay or bisexual in an alternative universe or mirror universe (thus prompting some fans to suggest that Paramount felt that alternative life-styles belonged in alternative universes).

The first DS9 mirror universe episode was "Crossover" (1994) and would be followed up by "Through the Looking Glass". "Shattered Mirror", "Resurrection" and finally "The Emperor's New Cloak".

In the mirror universe, Major/Colonel Kira Nerys (played by Nana Visitor) existed in an alternative universe where she was bisexual. Alternate Kira was shown flirting with her double and the double of Jadzia Dax, but was especially known to have a sexual relationship with Ezri Tigan. Ezri was also depicted as in a relationship with Leeta and several other background and supernumary personnel were lesbian. In addition to the (almost universal) lesbianism in the mirror universe, male homosexuality was suggested in the final mirror universe episode, where Garak offered sexual favours to Worf, who sneers, "You're not my type."

The mirror universe was always shown as being more sinister than the normal universe, and so the response to the idea that otherwise heterosexual characters became bisexual in certain situations or parallel worlds was mixed. Some stations in the Southern United States edited out the lesbian kiss in "Rejoined", while some fans felt that the usage of the darker, mirror universe to allow certain characters to become bisexual was a case of cheaply catering to young straight men's interest in watching two women make out, or to homophobia or biphobia.

The Deep Space Nine series also used cross-dressing to introduce situational homosexuality for comic relief. In the episode "Rules of Acquisition", Pel is a Ferengi who is in love with Quark. Pel is really a female pretending to be a male, in order to have a career in the sexist Ferengi society. When Pel confesses to Dax that she is in love with Quark, Dax indicates she had guessed as much. She then asks Pel if Quark was aware of the infatuation, to which Pel responds "he doesn't even know that I'm a female," which suggests that love between males is inconceivable in Ferengi culture. However, Dax appears genuinely astonished to learn that Pel is female; evidently she had assumed Pel was male and therefore the "love" they had spoken of was homosexual, and Dax apparently regarded it as perfectly normal. Dax is perhaps the most worldly member of the crew, and her attitude suggests that homosexuality is generally much more accepted in the 24th century than it is today. Ferengi homophobia is alluded to again in this episode when Quark refuses to acknowledge an impetuous kiss from Pel. Later, when Quark learns that Pel is really a female, he rejects her offer of a romantic and business partnership because he does not want to be an outcast in Ferengi society, for having a female wife who was also his business partner.

In the episode "Profit and Lace", Quark himself would briefly be surgically altered to become a woman in a failed attempt to persuade a powerful Ferengi businessman that there would be profit in overturning the traditional Ferengi social code that Ferengi women should be naked. Later in the episode, Quark and the Ferengi businessman would share a kiss while Quark was still in the guise of a female, becoming Star Trek's first male same-sex kiss, although this depends upon a subjective definition of the sex of a transgender person.

The last season of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine (1999) had an episode titled "Field of Fire" in which Dax, now in the body of a new female host, has to track down a Vulcan murderer on the space station. One of the victims was a Bolian, played by a male actor, who was described as having a co-husband in addition to a wife. This led some fans to suggest that this episode was asserting that same-sex marriages were eventually given legal recognition in the Star Trek future, while other fans suggested that this meant that polygamy and not same-sex marriages were legally recognized.

In a 2000 Fandom interview, Ronald D. Moore suggested that the reason why no gay characters existed in television franchise was because someone wanted it that way, and no amount of support from fans, cast or crew was going to make any difference.

"Tell me why there are no gay characters in Star Trek," says Ron Moore. "This is one of those uncomfortable questions I hate getting when I was working on the show, because there is no good answer for it. There is no answer for it other than people in charge don’t want gay characters in Star Trek, period... That’s one of the great things about Paramount. Paramount left us alone. They always left us alone. They let Next Gen do whatever it wanted. God knows it let Deep Space Nine do whatever we wanted. It lets Voyager do whatever it wants. The studio is not the problem here. The studio is going to let you go wherever you want to go, as long as they believe that this is quality, as long as they believe it’s good work. You’ve just got to come up with something good."

Comments like this have sent a message to fans that while the cast, crew, and even the Paramount studio is open to the idea of having gay characters on the television franchise, someone that controls the franchise, but not the studio itself, has made his prohibition position on this issue very clear.

Star Trek: Voyager

When Voyager came to air, fans created the "Voyager Visibility Project" in an effort to persuade the series to have one its crew-members established as having a gay or bisexual orientation. The club was able to get the endorsement of Roddenberry's grandson, Richard Compton Jr. In a letter to the fan club he wrote:

"I wholeheartedly support the Voyager Visibility Project's efforts to add an on-going gay or lesbian character to Star Trek: Voyager. I feel that the producers of Voyager fail to exhibit the social foresight that my grandfather has shown. Only through 20th Century activism can the 23rd Century goal of a hateless society be met." (April 29, 1996)

The club created enough of a letter writing campaign, that in 1997 Voyager Executive Producer Jeri Taylor made the suggestion that Seven of Nine should be established as being a lesbian or bisexual. The internal suggestion was leaked to the press and the fan club and the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation issued a press release praising the decision to make the character the first gay character on the show. However, Paramount quickly issued a statement that Seven of Nine was going to be heterosexual, and afterwards Taylor explained that her suggestion was rejected by an unnamed superior. Yet, as we saw with DS9, Voyager was able to drop hints about a hero's or villain's sexuality as long as it was never developed. In the episode "Warlord", Kes's body is possessed by a male political extremist named Tieran, who while in Kes's body engages in romantic relationships with both men and women, and even announces his engagement to another man. In one scene while possessed, Kes almost kisses another female, but is called away at the last moment. Later in the episode, she does kiss Tuvok, which some may view as a same-sex kiss. The situation also could illustrate an internal struggle between the experience of Tieran and the female biology of Kes.

In the episode "Ashes To Ashes", a female crew-member returns from the dead and subsequently wants to leave the starship. The episode contained a joke where she goes on a date one evening with Captain Janeway who tries unsuccessfully to convince her to stay. It is never explained if this was a romantic evening or a platonic expression of bonding and friendship between two women. In the episode titled "The Killing Game, Part I" the crew thinks it is living in Nazi-occupied France and Captain Janeway becomes the owner of a nightclub where it is implied, but again never developed, that she is romantically involved with Seven of Nine. In the episodes "The Killing Game, Part I" and "Dark Frontier, Part II", sections of dialogue seemed to suggest that Seven of Nine might at least be bisexual even as her official story-line required that she be heterosexual.

In 2002 Kate Mulgrew (who played Captain Janeway) gave an interview to Metrosource where she spoke candidly about the issue of LGBT characters in the Star Trek television universe.

"[...] because of its both political and potentially incendiary substance. I'm in a minority as well, as a woman. It took a lot of courage on their part to hire a woman. I think that right up until the end they were very dubious about it. It's one thing to cast a subordinate Black, Asian or woman, but to put them in leading role means the solid endorsement of one of the largest studios in the world. And that goes for a gay character as well. It requires a terrific social conscience on their part and the pledge of some solidarity and unanimity, which I think is probably at the source of most of this problem to get every one of those executives on board regarding this decision."

That same year Mulgrew was even more blunt about the topic in an August 2002 interview for Out in America:

"Well, one would think that Hollywood would be more open-minded at this point, since essentially the whole town is run by the gay community. It makes very little sense if you think about it. No, Star Trek is very strangely by the book in this regard. Rick Berman, who is a very sagacious man, has been very firm about certain things. I've approached him many, many times over the years about getting a gay character on the show — one whom we could really love, not just a guest star. Y'know, we had blacks, Asians, we even had a handicapped character — and so I thought, this is now beginning to look a bit absurd. And he said, "In due time." And so, I'm suspecting that on Enterprise they will do something to this effect. I couldn't get it done on mine. And I am sorry for that."

Other cast and crew members have been asked this question before over the years, but none of them have mentioned any names, even though many fans felt that Rick Berman had a role in the lack of gay characters on the series and these fans tied it to an accusation that Berman was betraying Roddenberry's progressive vision.

When Star Trek: Enterprise began to air on television, the issue of LGBT characters once again arose and with new intensity as some fans felt that Star Trek was behind other television shows in the integration of LGBT characters and because it was believed that this would be the last Star Trek television series for a long time.

Star Trek: Enterprise

The longtime debate over whether Star Trek should include a gay character reached a head with Enterprise. In a 2002 interview with Metrosource Actor Scott Bakula (who played Captain Jonathan Archer) expressed his support for the idea as had the TNG actors Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes in the 1990s. In the interview Bakula said:

"I'm not really familiar with the history of this particular issue with regards to Star Trek; in fact, the first I ever heard of it was at our first junket when somebody asked if there was going to be an opportunity for a gay or lesbian character on the show. I was surprised at the question, because I had just assumed that over the course of the years that it had been addressed. I was surprised it was even an issue. Since then I haven't sat down with Rick and Brannon to discuss it. It does seem awkward . I haven't heard anything coming down the pipeline, but I would be in favor of it. I would hope it would be handled in a great way. It would be wonderful, in my opinion, if it was not such a huge issue, but was just there."

When the series began in 2001 there were some rumors that the character Malcolm Reed (played by Dominic Keating) would be gay. The writer Andy Mangels asked Dominic Keating at the Creation Star Trek Convention in Portland, January, 2002, whether his character would be gay. (While Keating is heterosexual himself, as a British actor he had worked in a drag act called "Feeling Mutual" in order to receive his Equity card. This seemed to make him the best candidate.) Keating said that it had been discussed and rejected. Dialogue between Riker and Reed in the final episode was edited to acknowledge this issue (Riker is talking to Reed about a male crewmate, and asks "Do you think he's attractive?", after which the camera pulls off of Riker and it is revealed that the scene had jumped forwards in time and he is now asking the question of a female crewman).

The doctor aboard the Enterprise, Phlox, was a Denobulan. His species practiced group marriages. He had three wives, who in turn each had two other husbands besides him. The question of what matings resulted from these marriages has never been addressed.

During the early half of Enterprise's 3rd season an episode aired entitled "Rajiin" which seemed to feature a lesbian or bisexual undertone. The character of Rajiin used a method of seduction to perform a biological analysis of Archer, Hoshi and T'Pol. During her attack on Archer, she is clearly shown kissing and otherwise engaging in foreplay, although this explicitness is not repeated with Hoshi and T'Pol. While Hoshi's encounter is left entirely to the viewer's imagination (the turbolift door closes before what is implied as a kiss), T'Pol's is slightly more defined. Rajiin caresses her and runs her hands over her body—although this is shown to be the method of gaining biological data. Still, there is no indication that Rajiin genuinely has an attraction to any one of the three of them, so her sexual orientation is not explicitly stated.

The series did air an episode with some social commentary about AIDS. The episode "Stigma" (2003) revealed that the Vulcan named T'Pol (played by Jolene Blalock) had become infected with a disease similar to AIDS from a forced mind meld. The Vulcans infected with this disease are outcasts in the society (until a cure is found in the last season) and thus the social message of the episode was that people infected with AIDS deserve human dignity and compassion while we work together for a cure. The fan response was mixed. Most fans enjoyed the episode because it was doing what Roddenberry had intended; use the science fiction fantasy to offer politically progressive social commentary. On the downside, the episode was criticized for offering a social commentary that was rather bland and not likely to produce much discussion in comparison to other television series such as Law & Order, ER, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Also some fans felt that treating a mind meld as the means of transmission to a AIDS-like disease seemed to only encourage the pornographic slash fiction that exists online that implies that Spock and Kirk were lovers. Further, the series only made the "AIDS episode" when UPN (the network Enterprise was on) told all of its programs to make AIDS-related episodes for an awareness month; a plaque actually ran on screen immediately after the final scene giving HIV internet contact information. Several critics disparaged the executive producers for only making an episode addressing HIV when they were directly "ordered" to by the network.

Recently, one Enterprise episode titled "Cogenitor" has been suggested as possibly introducing another third gender-type alien race into the Star Trek franchise. In the episode, the Enterprise crews meets a new alien race, and finds out that the Cogenitor is a rare "third sex" minority that while being required for the alien race's reproduction is otherwise abused and treated as a slave. As was the case with the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode titled "The Outcast" (1992), the "alternative" sexual orientation is brought onto the Enterprise by a new alien race (never to be seen again), though this is not the same problem faced by TNG, as Enterprise was known for creating one-off races who would never again be seen in the franchise (despite their close proximity to Earth). One of the aliens attempts to break away from the mold, but there is no discussion of Earth's own gay rights movement, and a cryptic plea for tolerance before the third-gender alien ends up committing suicide at the end of the episode.

Enterprise ended without any LGBT characters and a tame social message about how humanity should be nice to people infected with AIDS, and what seemed to be a remake of TNG's "The Outcast". In an April 2003 interview with Trekweb, Berman stated, "'Stigma' was supposed to be our gay episode, but we sort of copped out."

While no new episodes of Enterprise will be aired, there have been rumors circulating, by fans, on the Internet that there was a three-part episode of the series that might have been produced had the series had more seasons, and would have been a "gay episode". If the rumors are true, the first part of the story arc would have been a gay rights version of the Original Star Trek episode "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield". A young lesbian couple (a daughter of the royal family and a political dissident) would flee to the Enterprise seeking political asylum from a government agent that wants to bring these two women back to stand trial for treason and homosexuality.

The second two episodes would have taken the Enterprise crew to the aliens' homeland (similar to the German Weimar Republic) and storylines would have explicitly dealt with the issue of how the Federation has gotten past bigotry and oppression based on race, religion and sexual orientation, the rise of a fascist regime in the alien homeworld and even the appearance of Q as the secret masked man somehow giving aid to a Hitler-esque member of the fascist political party. The third episode would have launched the beginning of a war, to allude to how the civilization's racism and sexism leads to its destruction by decades of civil and nuclear war.

It is unclear if these Internet rumors refer to some fan fiction or an unproduced television script. However, there are other types of official and unofficial Star Trek spinoffs that have dealt with the issue of LGBT characters and homophobia.

Fan fiction

In 2000 a group of Star Trek fans started to create and film their own low budget Star Trek television series and air the episodes online. The fan based Star Trek: Hidden Frontier has included some gay crew-members.

Computer and video games

In 1995 Spectrum Holobyte, Inc. released the graphic adventure MS-DOS computer game Star Trek: The Next Generation, A Final Unity, featuring voice talents from the television series of the same name. One of the levels involved going to a tropical world where aliens of the male gender were second class citizens, and Commander Data at one point made a reference to his kidnapping by the art collector in "The Most Toys".

In 2000 Activision released Star Trek: Voyager Elite Force for Windows and the PlayStation 2. The game, a first-person shooter built around the Quake III engine, allowed the player to choose between male and female avatars; irrespective of the gender chosen, a female character would flirt with the protagonist later on in the game. The 2003 release of Star Trek: Elite Force 2 received opinions ranging from shock to indifference, at the lack of any featured gender choice for the player-character of Alex, who was cast as male for this installment of the series. Whether this is due to the multiple-choice format of relationships to pursue through the game with one of two female characters, both of which ends the game as a full-on heterosexual relationship, is sheer speculation. It is most likely however, that the production team simply chose this route as a means to save time in writing and rendering the game, as well as to spare any technical complications in a mostly action-driven game, as opposed to what might be suspected as plot complications due to any open option of pursuing same-sex relationships. There are vague suggestions however, that certain Enterprise crewmembers in the game may be gay or bisexual, or that even one or two alien characters encountered may be also.

Novels and comic books

Star Trek novels and comic books appear to be under a much less strict standard when it comes to addressing LGBT issues in the franchise.

References to bisexuality occurred in Gene Roddenberry's 1979 novelization of Star Trek: The Motion Picture, in a foreword allegedly written by James Kirk that wryly dismisses claims that he had had a sexual relationship with Spock. Similarly, early Star Trek novels written by Vonda N. McIntyre, such as The Entropy Effect, had subplots referencing alternative lifestyles and family arrangements. McIntyre's novelizations of The Wrath of Khan (1982) and The Search for Spock (1984) also made reference, in passing, to such themes. The thrust of these references is that sexual orientation was simply not an issue and that the characters felt free to engage in whatever relationships they desired, irrespective of their gender. Della van Hise's Star Trek novel Killing Time is infamous for its Kirk/Spock content (which was considerably more blatant in an early draft that was published by mistake).

In the 1990s official Star Trek novels and comic books began to introduce minor Star Trek crewmembers, cadets and officers that were established as being LGBT. In each case, their sexual orientation was treated as a normal, personal trait, akin to religion, and the only homophobia that arose was from a particular alien race, who often ended up learning a lesson in tolerance. For example, Jeri Taylor (of Voyager) wrote Pathways, a novel concerning the early lives of the Voyager crew. In the book, the character of Harry Kim was revealed to have had, at one time, a gay roommate who harbored romantic feeling toward him, however this was never reciprocated as Harry was in the early stages of a heterosexual relationship. Also, in sections set in the present, two of Voyager's crewmembers (who never appeared or were referenced in the television series) were revealed to be in a gay couple, and this is simply mentioned and not treated as character flaw or a concern for any of the other crewmembers. Likewise Andy Mangels' and Michael A. Martin's novel Section 31: Rogue (1996) established Lieutenant Hawk as being gay and having a boyfriend named Ranul Keru. Keru further appeared in the Deep Space Nine novel Worlds of Deep Space Nine: Unjoined and the Titan series. The Starfleet Corps of Engineers e-book series includes a gay main character in Bart Faulwell. Etana Kol and Kristen Richter are a lesbian couple and supporting characters in the DS9 Relaunch. In the novel Imzadi by Peter David, Lwaxana Troi tells that she had been part of an arranged marriage when younger but she called it off when she realized he was in love with someone else: "Another man." She further states that the same-sex pair "made a cuter couple than we did." The implication is clearly that either same-sex pairings are accepted in Betazed society or that Lwaxana is that accepting, or both. Given the kitsch nature of Lwaxana's character, however, this could be a passing reference to the stereotypical attractions often found between 'flamboyant' or indeed gay men (both in or out of the closet) between the 17th and 21st centuries on Earth (see Beard). This may also perhaps give a clue as to the nature of Lwaxana's relationship with Deanna Troi's late father, Ian-Andrew.

The DS9 Relaunch novels also give a more complete view of Andorian biology and sexuality than was ever revealed in the series proper. They apparently have four genders, none of which are strictly "male" or "female," but two of which are often referred to as male and the other two as female for the ease of the usual bi-gendered species. Their reproductive process requires all four genders (that is, two "males" and two "females") to be together at once. While this is not a true analogue to any human sexuality, it is an interesting "alternative" sexuality whose depiction includes clear expressions of love between characters who would be seen by others as being the same gender.

In addition many other recent books contain smaller references to homosexual or bisexual characters. For example, the recent Vanguard series features a female Vulcan officer engaged in a relationship with a female Klingon spy disguised as a human- an action that, according to Klingon tradition, brings great dishonour to the Klingon in question. Also, the Next Generation nove 'The Best and the Brightest,' by Susan Wright, features two female classmates from Starfleet Academy who eventually become involved in a romantic relationship by the end of the book.

Controversy

The subject of LGBT characters or themes in the Star Trek universe is a subject of some controversy. Some fans still view homosexuality as a disease and thus argue that it has been somehow "cured" in the utopian future. As "Star Trek" is produced in predominantly liberal Hollywood, this view is probably not shared by any production staff working on the series. Although the argument in favor of a LGBT character in televised or theatrical Trek appears moot given the current moribund state of the franchise, it is expected to rise again once any future production is announced.

References

1. ^ D. Sinclair (October 19, 2003). "Gay, Lesbian & Bisexual Characters on Star Trek - a 12-year saga of deceit, lies, excuses and broken promises".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
2. Michael O'Malley (April 2004). "Regulating Television". Exploring U.S. History.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
3. "Subtext and Slash: Having Your Cake and Eating it Too". The New York Times Company. Retrieved 2006-11-08.
4. Associated Press (October 27, 2005). "George Takei, 'Mr. Sulu,' says he's gay". MSNBC.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
5. ^ Mark A. Altman (October 1992). "Tackling Gay Rights". Cinefantastique.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
6. ^ Joe Clark (August 27, 1991). "Star Trek: The Next Genderation - Queer Characters Join the Enterprise Crew". The Advocate.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
7. David Alexander (March/April 1991). "Interview of Gene Roddenberry: Writer, Producer, Philosopher, Humanist". The Humanist. Retrieved 2006-07-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
8. Ruth Rosen (October 30, 1991). "'Star Trek' Is on Another Bold Journey". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 2006-07-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
9. ^ D. Sinclair (October 19, 2003). "Star Trek: Deep Space Nince".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
10. ^ "Gay Star Trek Timeline". Gay League.
11. Voyager Visibility Project/ USS Harvey Milk Gay & Lesbian Star Trek Association (April 29, 1996). "Gay Roddenbery Grandson Endorses Voyager Visibility Petition!".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
12. Voyager Visibility Project/ USS Harvey Milk Gay & Lesbian Star Trek Association (September 4, 1997). "Will sexy new Star Trek character be a lesbian?". gaytrek.com.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
13. D. Sinclair (October 19, 2003). "Supportive Comments by Voyager Actors".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
14. Andy Scahill (August 8, 2002). "A Brand New Voyage". Out in America. Retrieved 2006-07-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)
15. Nick Steele (February/March 2002). "Man on a Mission". Metrosource. Retrieved 2006-07-20. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |year= (help)CS1 maint: year (link)
16. D. Sinclair (October 19, 2003). "D. Sinclair's Hate-mail".{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: year (link)

External links

• Gay and Lesbian Characters in Star Trek
• Queer As Vulcan
• "AIDS Episode Not So Bold" Boston Herald 2003
• "Star Trek's Gay Legacy"
• "Beam Us Back, Scotty" The Nation 2002
• "Gay Trek" Salon 2001
• The Loss of Garak and Bashir 1999
• Gay Star Trek
• Star Trek Gay Romantic Art Created By Fans
• Fan Fiction

• Star Trek characters
• Fictional LGBT characters