How queer is Star Trek?

Interesting long form article on the history of LGBTQ+ characters in the Star Trek universe.

LINK

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Star Trek is not just one of the longest-running sci-fi franchises ever, it is also the most hopeful. The Federation represents the pinnacle of humanity: the idea that we can and will make a better life for each other. Yet, despite Trek’s message of a better future for all, LGBTQ+ characters are few and far between, and this exclusion has led to more than a few clashes between Star Trek creators and fans in the past.

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I can’t imagine clashing over something like this.

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Unfortunately, there is a divide between what the Federation claims to be, and what it actually is. Star Trek’s writers want us to believe that the Federation is a utopian society, wherein the social problems of the past have been solved. And yet, nothing is ever that simple, and fiction can’t help but be a product of its time. The Federation might be beyond sexism, racism, and homophobia, but its creators certainly aren’t—which became more evident as the years wore on, and fans started to demand canon gay representation.

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Again, I can’t imagine demanding something like this but I’m not a gay Trekkie so who knows.

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This interview was conducted in response to a fierce letter-writing campaign from fan group the Gaylactic Network, which implored the Star Trek writers to include gay characters. Both sci-fi novelist Arthur C. Clarke and actor Leonard Nimoy (Spock) wrote letters in support of this campaign.

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Arthur C Clarke is a brilliant futurist but this isn’t surprising.

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As an ex-Borg drone, Seven didn’t understand social conventions — so why was she automatically heterosexual?

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If she’s a drone why would they create breasts and a vagina for her? It seems like a pointless endevour, why give drones a sex or bother making them humanlike at all. Interesting.

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After the years of prejudice that have plagued Star Trek’s journey to queer representation, Discovery has taken some huge strides forward. It’s no longer surprising if anyone mentions a lover who is the same gender as them. “The universe in which we live in on the show is a place where everyone is willing and capable of loving anyone,” says Cruz, and that’s crucial to establish for an apparently utopian society. Although Discovery has stumbled in providing representation, Star Trek is finally learning how to live up to the hopeful promise of the Federation: That one day, decades or centuries from now, we will all find a better future among the stars—regardless of who we love.

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I hate that sjw's have started to infect sci-fi which are written and read by intelligent but awkward incels.