# Why no gay Star Trek characters? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 19, 2006, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362 "2006-04-19T21:06:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/21 "2006-04-19T23:06:58Z")
> [@cerberus](#): > > The actress who played Rand had “issues”, and her personal life derailed her career. Ooh, yas! The poor girl was addicted to . . . marijuana! :eek: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace\_Lee\_Whitney](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Lee_Whitney) ---
**Author:** ![Loopydude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e56c9b/32.png) [@Loopydude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loopydude)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/22 "2006-04-19T23:07:04Z")
Cheezit, the hermaphrodite thing was in the OP. :smack: I’m at home now, I have time to read… ---
**Author:** ![Melkor28](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Melkor28](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melkor28)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/23 "2006-04-19T23:22:36Z")
I thought Wesley was gay 😛 ---
**Author:** ![ouryL](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ouryl/32/6067_2.png) [@ouryL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ouryL)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/24 "2006-04-19T23:23:09Z")
> [@pinkfreud](#): > > I always thought the Malcolm Reed character on **Enterprise** might be gay (dunno why I thought this, but that’s another matter). The ideal opportunity to bring Malcolm’s sexual orientation to light would have been the episode in which Malcolm and Trip were stranded in the shuttlepod for several days with no one but each other for companionship. But Malcolm didn’t out himself. Maybe the Enterprise was a “Don’t ask, don’t tell” kind of place. I think the episode was leaning that way, and later he seemed a little to shook up when that Special Ops guy died but then they decided to make him a double agent/spy in the end. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/25 "2006-04-19T23:28:30Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I think that was less shocking than the Kirk/Uhura kiss. After all, there was no mention of black Vulcans until _Voyager_. I’ve heard two versions of the Kirk/Uhura kissing scene…one, Shatner actually kissed her and deliberately messed up the other takes so they’d have to use the kissing one, and two, he never actually kissed her, just brought his face close to hers and glared at Parmen. > > I haven’t seen the episode in a while, so I can’t remember exactly what the scene looks like. No, as broadcast, he definitely kissed her. Big controversy at the time. Remember, this was in the time frame when someone wrote to TV Guide saying it was wrong to put more Blacks on TV because there were no Black cowboys in the west and it would be a ridiculous as a white slave. TV Guide replied that, yes, after the Civil War, freed slaves went west and worked as cowboys, plus the word “slave” derives from “slavs,” who were white. One of the best putdowns ever. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/26 "2006-04-19T23:48:15Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > And Kirk himself would probably knock boots with a horta . . . Hortas don’t wear boots! ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2006, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/27 "2006-04-19T23:57:05Z")
> [@Melkor28](#): > > I thought Wesley was gay 😛 I remember one ep where he had a romance with a diplomatic guest (an energy being or something, who was only masquerading as a humanoid girl). ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/28 "2006-04-20T00:04:29Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I remember one ep where he had a romance with a diplomatic guest (an energy being or something, who was only masquerading as a humanoid girl). He also got it on with Ashley Judd, who played an engineering ensign. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/29 "2006-04-20T00:36:24Z")
> [@AWB](#): > > Like Will Truman told Jack McFarland when the latter thought C-3PO was gay: “He’s not gay; he’s British!” :D:D:D Why no gay Star Wars characters? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/30 "2006-04-20T00:36:33Z")
[Interesting Rand info](http://www.ridgenet.net/~curtdan/Excelsior/SuluPages.cgi?FILE=Rand) ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/31 "2006-04-20T00:59:51Z")
I have been given to understand that Roddenbery nixed Gerrold’s gay character because homosexuality would be so open as to be not worth mentioning in TNG universe. There is a shot of a male yeoman wearing a miniskirt in an early TNG episode. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/32 "2006-04-20T01:14:49Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > I have been given to understand that Roddenbery nixed Gerrold’s gay character because homosexuality would be so open as to be not worth mentioning in TNG universe. > There is a shot of a male yeoman wearing a miniskirt in an early TNG episode. Encounter at Farpoint, Part One. The “skant” wearing male crewman was seen for a moment near the beginning of the episode, while Picard was giving us a voiceover describing this fabulous Galaxy class starship. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/33 "2006-04-20T01:30:28Z")
> [@Loopydude](#): > > Didn’t Riker fall for a hermaphrodite of some sort? I mean, it was pretty lame as a gay-themed episode but it was something. The actor polaying the alien was obviously female, and the character was supposed to be a heterosexual hiding “her” orientation, as it was considered an undesirable deviancy among her own people. IIRC she probably didn’t have conventionally female parts down there, as her race reproduced by dancing around a big pod or some other such nonsense. Maybe she had a penis-like organ? Did Riker even know? I wish I could remember. That episode bugged me because it nothing directly to do with homosexuality but was, at best, a weak statement about conformity. The character Riker falls for, Soren, tells him a story about a member of her species that once displayed “male tendencies.” What does that _mean_, anyway? “He” watched a lot of football and wouldn’t ask for directions? And Soren allegedly displayed “female” tendencies. Does that mean “she” liked to shop and watch _The View_? The society depicted isn’t terrified of gender; they’re terrified of individuality. The episode chickened out by casting the rather foxy actress Melinda Culea as Soren. A gutsier move would’ve been casting an actor. Gutsier still would be to drop the alien crap and just have a gay crew member on the _Enterprise_. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/34 "2006-04-20T01:59:48Z")
We could speculate! (not canon, by any stretch) Geordi - Never could get a date, despite being an attractive, intelligent man. Perhaps he gave off a gay vibe? Leah was a fantasy at first, and a dom to his sub when he actually met her. Geordi should’ve experimented. Barclay - Had major troubles dealing with his repressed homosexuality. When he finally came out, then he got all sorts of better, making quite a name for himself in the Voyager Incident. Tasha Yar - Virtually bipolar (like a bar magnet) in her bisexuality. She slept her way to the top, exploiting her abilities to please all the sexes she encountered. Besides having a prolonged affair with Guinan, she dallied with Data, Wesley, a Gorn, and quite a few Klingons and Nausicans. Troi - Longtime sexual companion to Dr. Crusher, this didn’t prevent her from sexing up various male crewmates. Her former love relationship with Riker wasn’t a monogomous affair, the relationship being very open on both sides. Neelix - Confirmed pedophile. Married to a 3 yr old, divorced her when she grew up. Kim - A boy named Kim. Eh, common name for a male in his family’s culture of origin. Was married to a male exotic dancer during his first post Acadamy assignment. Later deiced to experiment with noncorporeal sex after the Voyager Incident. Captain Decker - First known Human to mate noncorporeally. (Cochran and the Companion are still vaulted away as Top Secret) Kirk - Trisexual. If it’s sexual, he’ll try it. You try it! It’s fun! ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/35 "2006-04-20T02:01:07Z")
^^^In fact actor Jonathan Frakes has said he tried to get the producers to have enough balls to cast a male as Soren. Also, the Kirk/Uhura kiss was the first televised interracial kiss on American TV. The Brits had one on some hospital/doctor series (forget the title) in 1964. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/36 "2006-04-20T02:02:22Z")
Forget my ^^^ above; someone posted in between me and the post I was replying to. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/37 "2006-04-20T02:59:07Z")
I always thought Kirk was gay–no matter how many skirts he chased. Also, Bones seemed to be a wee closeted, or was that Scotty? Hmmmm. Certainly, McCoy needed to have some sex, but then so did Spock… I may not be able to watch this show with my Dad anymore! :eek: 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/38 "2006-04-20T03:20:46Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > I think that was less shocking than the Kirk/Uhura kiss. After all, there was no mention of black Vulcans until _Voyager_. I’ve heard two versions of the Kirk/Uhura kissing scene…one, Shatner actually kissed her and deliberately messed up the other takes so they’d have to use the kissing one, and two, he never actually kissed her, just brought his face close to hers and glared at Parmen. > > I haven’t seen the episode in a while, so I can’t remember exactly what the scene looks like. From [this](http://www.nndb.com/people/712/000023643/) site: > [@](#): > > "The network was so nervous that two versions of the scene were filmed: one with the kiss, and one without it, where Kirk instead dramatically fought off the impulse. “When the camera zoomed in,” says Nichols, “Bill crossed his eyes and the director didn’t notice it until the next day in dailies. Of course the last scene was unusable and they had to go with the kiss scene, which became history as the first interracial kiss on TV.” However, according to [Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plato's_Stepchildren): > [@](#): > > The episode is highly notable for its alleged portrayal of the first interracial kiss ever depicted on television, between James T. Kirk (William Shatner) and Lt. Uhura (Nichelle Nichols). However, according to William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols in Shatner’s “Star Trek: Memories”, NBC insisted that their lips never touch. Their heads turn away from the camera in the shot. The important thing is that it was a portrayal of an inter-racial kiss on television, which was groundbreaking enough as is. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/39 "2006-04-20T03:35:59Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I remember one ep where he had a romance with a diplomatic guest (an energy being or something, who was only masquerading as a humanoid girl). She was cute. Who was that, anyway? ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2006, 3:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362/40 "2006-04-20T03:43:24Z")
^^^Her name is Jaime Hubbard–she left acting in the 90s, is now a high school teacher. I forget the actresses’ name–but the girl Hubbard beat out for the role (and who was given a walk-on part in the ep) went on to a much bigger show-biz career. Sir Rhosis [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-no-gay-star-trek-characters/353362.md?page=3)