GenQ - For the not so straight individual

Star Trek: The Original Series was a bold and groundbreaking television show for its time. In the 1960s, it was the first television series to feature an interracial kiss between the Caucasian Captain Kirk and the African-American Lt Uhura, and presented officers of varying cultures in positions of power. While no queer situations or characters were ever apart of the first generation of the franchise, in television or in later films, fans of the second television series, The Next Generation had a reason to hope for more.

Star Trek: The Next Generation ushered in a celebrated return of the franchise to the science-fiction genre, but after three seasons of the show gay and lesbian fans began to question why queer characters had not yet been featured in the utopian society. At most, episodes of the series had shunned homosexuality -- Dr Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden) falls in love with a Trill symbiont, originally in a male host; when the symbiont is transferred into a female host, the Doctor quickly ends the relationship, saying ?perhaps someday our ability to love won't be so limited.?

Queer fans took this two ways; that homosexuality had been ?cured? as it was never featured, or that the creators and producers of the show simply did not want to feature homosexuality in the 24th Century. Regardless of the case, fans began a letter writing campaign to feature queer content on the show. Creator Gene Roddenberry was quick to respond, commenting in 1991 to the queer newsmagazine The Advocate that ?I've never found it necessary to do a special homosexual-themed story, because people, in the timeline of The Next Generation, the 24th century, will not be labelled,? adding that in ?fifth season viewers will see more of shipboard life [including] gay crew members in day-to-day circumstances.?

Unfortunately, fans weren't able to see if Roddenberry could make good on his claim when he died before production began on the fifth season. Taking the helm of the franchise was Rick Berman, who summed up his feelings on homosexuality by quickly dismissing Ernie Over, an openly gay man and personal assistant working for Paramount Pictures. In the closest thing to homosexual theme, the fifth season of The Next Generation featured an episode where Commander Riker (Jonathan Frakes) falls in love with a member of the androgynous J'naii race. The J'naii forbid gender-specific relationships, and the love interest is forced to undergo psychotechnic therapy to remove any feelings of love or lust for another. Taking away from a queer reading of this episode is that all the androgynous characters in the episode were played by females; this even bothered Frakes, who felt his love interest should have at least been played by a male to make the story far more complex and interesting.

There was victory for homosexuality in Star Trek's next spin-off, Deep Space Nine, where in season four, Trill officer Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell), engages in a 15-second kiss with a ?past love? named Dr Lenara Kahn. Trills contain both a host body and a symbiote, while the two women engaged in a kiss, in reality it was a kiss between the asexual symbiotes in Dax and Kahn. Audiences argued that the kiss was asexual, or heterosexual at best. Still, the kiss moved television stations in America to refuse to play the episode, or to cut the scene out from the show themselves. The victory was short-lived when another same-sex kiss between mirror-universe counterparts of Dax and Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) in the seventh season drew concerns from gay and lesbian fans that the show equated bisexuality to evilness. To summarize, the only instance where we have seen queer main characters is in an evil alternate universe.

In September of 1997, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, in cooperation with the ?Voyager Visibility Project? issued a press release stating they'd been informed by a crew member on the spin-off Star Trek: Voyager that ex-Bord drone Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) would experiment with sexuality in her quest to understand what it was to be human. This was quickly addressed when Jeri Taylor, executive producer of Voyager commented that there would not be a queer character on the show for ?for various reasons.? Later, in 2000, ex-Next Generation writer Ronald Moore cleared up those reasons, stating that ?there is no answer [for a lack or queer characters] other than people in charge don't want gay characters in Star Trek, period.

That ?man in charge,? Rick Berman, went on to validate Moore's statement when he quickly denied rumours that new bridge officer Lt Hawk (Neil McDonough) was gay in the highest-grossing franchise motion picture to date, Star Trek: First Contact. The rumours stemmed from anonymous source stating that several producers and McDonough himself were ?adamant about the character's sexuality [being queer].? The source also warned that while most references to Hawk's sexuality were cut from the film, ?subtle throwaway references will not be cut ? and only people with ?gaydar? will probably be able to tell.? Berman was quick to release a statement that ?Lieutenant Hawk is heterosexual and there are actually no gay characters in the film, or, for that matter, on Voyager or Deep Space Nine.?

This is interesting because if he was gay, he was killed off, which could have implications when read-into. Additionally, it's interesting because if there are no real references to his sexuality, either hetero or homosexual, we are to assume he is heterosexual by default.

Enterprise, the latest (and now just plain late) spin-off, was no exception. Rumours circulated that Lieutenant Malcolm Reed (Dominic Keating), head of security would be the first gay lead character in the history of the franchise. Berman was quick to quash this rumour as well: ?That's totally untrue'it has not been discussed. We've just decided not to make an issue of it for the time being.?

Scott Bakula, of Quantum Leap fame, was cast to play Captain Archer in Enterprise. When asked of his opinion of a lack of queer characters in Star Trek, he replied, ?I had just assumed that over the course of the years [queer characters] had been addressed'it does seem awkward [that the issue has not been looked at]. 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.? At least the actors understand.

While Berman controls how Star Trek is portrayed in television and film, he doesn't have nearly enough sway in other areas to hold back queer content in the franchise. In comic books and novels, gay characters flourish; whether or not they are accepted as part of Star Trek canon, or accepted history, is another story.

When openly gay writer Chris Cooper created a Marvel comic book featuring exploits of Starfleet Academy members, he introduced readers to two gay cadets. Over the course of the book's first issues, a human male named Yoshi Mishima was hinted at being gay; by issue #17 (April 1998), he came out and dealt with homophobia from a member of a reptilian race whose dying culture did not approve of coupling without procreation. Cooper has indicated that Yoshi's partner would have been revealed in later issues to be the all-American Cadet Team Leader, Matt Decker. Unfortunately, the comic book was cancelled due to lack of interest; one wonders if this was in relation to Cooper's plans or not.

Perhaps the biggest challenge to Star Trek canon presented itself in the novel Star Trek: The Next Generation: Section 31: Rogue. Openly gay writer Andy Mangels, together with Michael A. Martin, revisits the Enterprise-E and feature an pair of gay male lovers among the crew. One of those men? None other than Lt Hawk, who was shoved back in the closet after First Contact. Lt Hawk, the conn officer on the ship lives with his lover of two years, Ranul Keru, head of the ship's stellar cartography unit.

Granted, those instances are to be considered small victories, but overall the queer community has not been treated kindly by the mega-franchise. If general society is mourning the departure of a franchise that fails to include Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, or Transgendered people in its Utopian world, maybe we shouldn't be so upset about it ourselves. Let's make way for a view of a perfect future which doesn't discriminate against who a person loves.