Summary
- Star Trek has made strides in LGBTQ+ representation, with more queer characters in recent years, including main characters like Adira Tal.
- By using allegories, Star Trek has explored queer themes since its inception, shedding light on the queer experience through metaphorical storytelling.
- The normalization of queerness in Star Trek is a celebration of human diversity in the modern present, showcasing organic relationships and diverse characters.
I love that queerness in Star Trek is normalized. It seems perfectly natural for Star Trek to include queer characters, but explicit on-screen LGBTQ+ representation has been surprisingly rare until recently. Star Trek's first same-sex kiss made franchise history in 1995, when Lt. Commander Jadzia Dax (Terry Farrell) fell for Lenara Kahn (Susanna Thompson) in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine season 4, episode 9, "Rejoined". Lt. Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) was briefly shown with a male partner in 2016's Star Trek Beyond. Both instances were considered controversial at the time, even though Star Trek was known for being ahead of the curve in representing other types of diversity.
In 2017, Star Trek: Discovery became home to Star Trek's first queer main characters, Commander Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz). Discovery featured no less than five main or recurring LGBTQ+ characters over its 5 seasons, including nonbinary character and actor Ensign Adira Tal played by Blu del Barrio, and there have been far more queer characters in modern Star Trek shows, with each series including at least one. Queer fans have definitely benefited from more direct LGBTQ+ representation in Star Trek, but the true beauty of inclusion isn't just in queer Star Trek characters existing -- it's in how characters on Star Trek are queer.
How Metaphorical Queerness In Star Trek Can Be Helpful
By telling stories about alien societies as stand-ins for actual human diversity, Star Trek sheds light on the queer experience without needing to explicitly state that. In Star Trek: The Next Generation season 5, episode 17, "The Outcast", Soren (Melinda Culea) is a female member of the otherwise agender J'naii, who was portrayed as a victim of systemic oppression that cisgender and/or heterosexual audiences can empathize with. Star Trek: Enterprise season 2, episode 14, "Stigma" draws a metaphorical parallel to the HIV/AIDS crisis when Subcommander T'Pol (Jolene Blalock), a regular character viewers already know well, deals with contracting Pa'nar Syndrome after a mind meld.
Allegories are more valuable, however, when the queerness in Star Trek is explicit. Star Trek's future doesn't care about homosexual relationships but it mattered in the 1990s, so Dax's relationship with Lenara Kahn in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine is framed with a Trill taboo against reassociation. "Rejoined" is relevant because Jadzia and Lenara still fight a social stigma echoing contemporary attitudes towards same-sex relationships. Adira's nonbinary gender and they/them pronouns aren't an issue for anyone in Star Trek: Discovery, but making Adira Tal the host of a Trill symbiont (literally a plural entity) is a clever way to start changing resistant minds about using they/them for actual nonbinary people.
In Star Trek: Discovery season 5, episode 6, "Whistlespeak", part of Captain Michael Burnham's (Sonequa Martin-Green) xenoanthropological brief on the pre-warp society on Halem'no is the Halem'nites' recognition of 3 genders. Without drawing any attention to it, everyone simply defaults to they/them pronouns for guest character Ravah (June Laporte).
Star Trek's Queer Stories Aren't About the Future (They're About Now)
Star Trek Models An Ideal Version Of The Present
Instead of being a literal prediction of the expected future, Star Trek is a projection of an ideal future based on present circumstances, so as being queer becomes less stigmatized in the present, queer allegory in Star Trek is replaced with actual LGBTQ+ representation. Part of that normalization is showing queer characters' problems and imperfections unfettered by modern criticism. Adira Tal is just as nervous about coming out as nonbinary as they are about working on the USS Discovery's bridge. The hurdles to Captain Seven of Nine (Jeri Ryan) and Commander Raffi Musiker's (Michelle Hurd) relationship in Star Trek: Picard are Seven's Borg past and Raffi's substance abuse, not anti-gay rhetoric.
Queerness is acknowledged, but is ultimately an ordinary part of Star Trek characters. Stamets and Culber's marriage on Star Trek: Discovery is just part of the fabric of the show. Their relationship is organic, easily accepted, and never feels tokenistic. In Star Trek: Lower Decks, Lt. Beckett Mariner's (Tawny Newsome) sexual orientation is just one of many things that make Mariner one of modern Star Trek's most interesting characters. Being queer on Star Trek is completely normalized, further proving how Star Trek's future is a wonderful celebration of human diversity in the modern present, and I love that.
