Not so boldly going where no one has gone before...

I have been a fan of the Star Trek franchise ever since my husband first introduced me to TNG in the early 90s.  I watched a few episodes of the OS as a child and enjoyed them, but didn't go out of my way to seek them out.  As we did not own a television at the time, we used to watch reruns TNG at our neighbor's apartment in Missoula every day and came over for the weekly show in prime time.  When DS9 started, we watched that as well, and continued through part of Voyager, though the whole "Lost in Space" theme eventually wore on us.  Recently, we have been watching Enterprise, as we missed it when it was on during the early 2000s.  We've seen all the movies, and I would say I am fairly invested in the canon.

Star Trek was ahead of its time, in terms of how minorities were represented.  The Kirk/Uhura kiss was both controversial and groundbreaking.  Many networks in the South refused to air that episode.  Voyager featured a female captain, and DS9's commander was African-American.  Each series had minorities on the crew, and their ethnicity was never a big deal.  They were characters who just happened to be of color, and one assumed that in the future, diversity was a natural part of life. I always appreciated how much of a non-issue race was in Star Trek.

So, given the visionary way that race has been portrayed in Star Trek, it is surprising that the franchise has skirted the issue of homosexuality.  The shows have played it safe.  There have been a few instances where the show flirts with gender norms.  The TNG episode "The Outcast" shows Riker falling in love with an asexual character, though the actor is clearly female, and the character violates its species' social norms by identifying as a woman.  Dax on DS9 has a relationship with a woman, though Dax is a Trill inhabited by a male, and Lenara, her love interest, is inhabited by a female Trill. Dr. Beverly Crusher has a relationship with a Trill whose host is male.  When he dies and is hosted by a female, she cannot continue the relationship.  In the DS9 episode "Crossover", Kira's mirror character in the alternate reality is portrayed as bisexual, though her character is considered "evil".  And I have read that the Enterprise character Malcolm Reed was originally slated to be gay, but that the producers ultimately decided against it.

Why has Star Trek, a franchise generally considered to be progressive, avoided dealing with bisexuality or homosexuality in any meaningful way? Are we to believe that homosexuality does not exist in the future?  Given estimates that up to 10% of the population identifies as gay, there should have been at least a few gay characters in the franchise, even if minor. I have read the reactions and comments of the fans, and they range from a similar concern to false arguments that "a character's sexuality shouldn't be portrayed on this show".

I call this a logical fallacy because, in fact, the sexuality of Star Trek characters have already been portrayed.  We have seen many one-shot hookups between male and female characters on all the shows, and have watched several long term relationships.  Frankly, all the characters are assumed to be straight.  If we are not to see the personal lives of crew members, as the fans have implied when others note that there are no gay and lesbian characters, then we should not have seen Kirk chasing skirts, Worf involved with Troi and later Dax, or any of the other on-screen romances that have been regularly portrayed.  I have also seen fans stating that they don't want to see gay people rubbed into their faces.  Frankly, I am guessing that gay characters would be portrayed just as were minority characters.  If they are on the show, they should just be there.  Their orientation would most likely not be an issue for anyone, and their romantic storylines should be treated just as any other character.  Even the sight of an obviously gay couple in the background in a dining hall would be a welcome step.  It doesn't have to be a BIG ISSUE.

I will give the original series a pass.  Gay characters just weren't shown on TV shows, and the interracial kiss was enough of a big deal at the time.  Even in TNG, I think it might have been an issue with the network to show an openly gay character.  This was before "Will and Grace" and "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", and it was quite rare to see LGBT people on TV.  But for goodness sake, by the time we reached "Enterprise", it was high time to have at least one LGBT character. And there's no excuse for the issue to be avoided in the reboot films.  I don't expect to see flaming gay characters running about the ship yelling "Fabulous!", but I expect that there could be at least one character who just happens to be LGBT.  Heck, start with a hot woman- a Seven of Nine or T'Pol type.  Even homophobic guys could get on board with that.

This is not, as I've seen mentioned, a "quota" issue.  The Star Trek world has been lauded for featuring human diversity ahead of its time, and LGBT people are part of the fabric that makes up the world's diverse populations.

I have read several articles about the lack of LGBT characters on Star Trek, and have been disappointed to see the number of hateful, homophobic responses in the comments section.  Some say that, obviously, in the future, "sicknesses" like homosexuality have been cured.  Others say they would refuse to watch Star Trek if it "gayed itself up" with even one character.  We have a long, long way to go, but I am hoping that if another Star Trek series emerges, it will take a risk and present true diversity.