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The question of Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transvestite or transexual/transgender characters in the ''Star Trek'' universe has been a subject of debate since at least the planning stages of '''' in 1987 . That year, in response to a question from a fan at a science fiction convention, series creator Gene Roddenberry said that there would be Gay characters in the upcoming new series. What has followed since then has been a controversy, among fans, as to how much of this promise has been fulfilled within the television spinoffs of the ''Star Trek'' world. ''STAR TREK: THE ORIGINAL SERIES'' It is not surprising that the did not have any LGBT characters, as the censorship rules governing American network television prohibited any mention of homosexuality because it was seen as a Sexual Perversion . Aside from the Kirk/Spock -subtext, and the possible sexuality of Captain R.M. Merrik in Bread And Circuses , the closest thing was the last episode of the series that aired in 1969 as tacit endorsement of feminism. In the episode Captain Kirk switches minds with a woman, and the possessed Kirk acts more effeminate. In 2005 , George Takei , who portrayed helmsman Lt. Hikaru Sulu on the show, became the first actor on any Star Trek series to come out as being gay, as the sexuality of Merritt Butrick (who played Captain Kirk's son) remains in some dispute. ''STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION'' None of the ''Star Trek ''films or television series have had any official but never got beyond the script stage. Among fans this script is known as "The Gerrold Affair". David Gerrold is a science fiction writer, among whose credits is having written the script for the popular original ''Star Trek'' episode titled " The Trouble With Tribbles ". In 1987 he was with Roddenberry when he promised that TNG would integrate LGBT characters into the series and thus drafted a script for an episode that would have had two male ''Enterprise'' crew-members that were a couple, in the backdrop of an allegory about the mistreatment of people infected with AIDS . The title of this unproduced episode was "Blood and Fire — The Past is Prologue". Gerrold has since said that while many of the TNG cast and crew (including Roddenberry) were supportive of the story-line, it met stiff opposition from the studio and the script never made it into production. The precise reason why the script was never produced remains in some dispute. In the book ''Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Continuing Mission'' the author puts the blame on the studio: "Much of the change in perception of the script resulted from Paramount's concern that because the series was syndicated, in some markets it might air in the afternoon when younger viewers would be part of the audience." The October 1992 issue of '' Cinefantastique '' magazine laid much of the blame for the fate of the script at the door of executive producer Rick Berman . Fans still debate what role Roddenberry had in the fate of this script. Roddenberry publicly supported the idea of having gay characters on the show, and in internal meetings about "Blood and Fire" he is paraphrased by Herbert Wright as having said, :"It's the 24th century. By that time nobody gives a shit! It's an issue of the 20th century and maybe the 19th century, but it has nothing to do with the 24th century. By that time it's your choice of whoever you want." {Link without Title} Yet, other fans (and Gerrold) accuse Roddenberry of hypocrisy by allowing studio types such as Berman and Leonard Maizlish (Roddenberry's lawyer) to order rewrites of the script that removed the gay characters, and then were still nervous about the public reaction to an episode that offered a social critique of the hysteria that surrounded the AIDS epidemic. Other fans have suggested that petty office-politics, including a labor dispute between Gerrold and Roddenberry, prevented the script from getting produced and not any sort of Bigotry or Hypocrisy on the part of Roddenberry or the studio. In a 1991 story by the Advocate , of Homophobia . The first of such episodes was titled "", he chooses a female. In " Inheritance ", an android simulation of his creator's wife, upon hearing Deanna Troi's name, assumes her to be his girlfriend. In a 1990 episode about love, " The Offspring ", Data becomes a father and the other crew-members seek to explain to the daughter the Facts Of Life . In one scene Guinan (played by Whoopi Goldberg ) was successfully able to change her own dialogue from "when a man loves a woman" to "when two people are in love", but when an attempt was made to have a gay couple in the background of the scene, producer David Livingston was contacted and stopped the last minute attempt from occurring. Fans do not dispute that this bit of dialogue has implications for Sexual Orientation as it asserts that by the twenty-fourth century, society will have evolved to the point where the Gender to which a person is romantically attracted is not considered important. Yet, the reports that Livingston pulled the plug on any attempt to having gay crew-members in the background sent a mixed message to fans about how far the society had evolved beyond Homophobia . Fans would also note that in future Star Trek television spin-offs, the dialogue would often refer to love as something between a man and a woman. Also in 1990 , in the script for the episode " Captain's Holiday ", a throwaway direction in the script details a holiday resort, Risa , in which "couples predominate, with the spectrum of sexual preferences being evident." However, the actual episode only shows heterosexual couples. In the 1991 episode titled " The Host ", Dr. Beverly Crusher (played by Gates McFadden ) fell in love with a male Trill Ambassador, only to break off the romance when the ambassador changes bodies or host into a female. Fans debated if Dr. Crusher broke off the affair because she could not handle being romantically involved with a woman, or because she could not handle a relationship with an alien species that would change its gender. The dialogue that Crusher speaks, about a plea for a day when humanity's ability to love would not be so limited, could be interpreted as a statement supporting an end to homophobia (suggesting that it still existed in the utopian future) or an end to a fear about human-Trill relationship. A later episode titled " Liaisons " ( 1993 ) explored a similar theme when a male alien has a love affair with Captain Picard, while disguised as a woman, but as was the case in the Host, there is no sign of love, when the alien changes gender. These episodes only increased a campaign by fans, especially LGBT fans, to integrate LGBT characters onto the series and offer a strong criticism of homophobia. In a 1991 interview with ''The Humanist'', Roddenberry talked about being a heterosexual man who had to overcome his own homophobia: :"My attitude toward homosexuality has changed. I came to the conclusion that I was wrong. I was never someone who hunted down 'fags' as we used to call them on the street. I would, sometimes, say something anti-homosexual off the top of my head because it was thought, in those days, to be funny. I never really deeply believed those comments, but I gave the impression of being thoughtless in these areas. I have, over many years, changed my attitude about gay men and women." {Link without Title} Roddenberry also promised that in the upcoming fifth season of TNG gay crew members would appear on the show (''The Advocate''). Other stars of the franchise chinned in, with Leonard Nimoy (who played Spock ) offering his support in a 1991 letter to the ''Los Angeles Times'': :"It is entirely fitting that gays and lesbians will appear unobtrusively aboard the ''Enterprise'' — neither objects of pity nor melodramatic attention." {Link without Title} However, Roddenberry died soon after his interviews, Ernest Over was fired, and the announced plans to have a gay crew member on TNG (rumors suggested it would be a male nurse) never materalized. Control of the ''Star Trek'' franchise fell to men such as Rick Berman. While no gay crew-members did appear on TNG, one episode was aired that is commonly thought of as the ''gay episode''. In 1992 the episode titled " The Outcast " aired with a story of Commander William Riker (played by Jonathan Frakes ) where he falls in love with Soren who is a member of an advanced humanoid alien race called the J'naii . The J'naii were all androgynous and viewed the expression of any sort of male or female gender, especially sexual liaisons, as a Sexual Perversion . When the affair between Riker and Soren is discovered, the J'naii diplomats force Soren to undergo psychotectic therapy (read ''brainwashing''). The intention of the episode was to stop the letter writing campaign and criticism from fans wanting to see action taken on the public promise Roddenberry made in 1987 and 1991 to integrate LGBT characters into the series. To its credit, Soren does get the chance to defend her right to love another adult life-form irrespective of sex, but the episode left many fans feeling as if the series should have offered a better social message than one with androgynous aliens (who are never seen again). It is worth mentioning that the character of Soren was played by actress Melinda Culea , and in fact, all of the main J'naii characters were played by females. Frakes felt that Soren should have been played by a male, and thus when they kiss it would have had the social commentary akin to the original Star Trek series that aired the first interracial kiss on network television. Frakes and fans felt that having all the J'naii played by female actors undermined the social commentary of the episode and created a sense that Homosexuality was something brought onto the ''Enterprise'' by Fascist Lesbian s. Despite the criticism, Berman felt that this episode would end all criticism among fans about the ''gay issue''. Yet, Roddenberry's public statements had raised the expectations among fans who felt that the studio was forgetting about the Roddenberry promise in favor of a cop-out with plausible deniability. When the could be read as a gay crewmember, in light of the sexuality of the director, although the sexuality of the Enterprise Bridge Operations Officer is never established. ''STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE'' When '' ''(DS9) débuted in 1993 , fans were wondering if LGBT characters or a social commentary about homophobia would exist in this new series. In ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' ( 1993 – 1999 ) all the major characters were officially heterosexual, but fans debated what was the unofficial sexual orientation of three characters based on story-lines, portrayals, and dialogue in certain episodes. One possible explanation of the absence of gay characters in the Trek Universe is the back story for the "genetically enhanced" Julian Bashir Chief Medical Officer of Deep Space Nine . In the fourth season episode, " Doctor Bashir, I Presume? " it is revealed that the Doctor was born mildly Retarded and his parents subjected him to Genetic Engineering . The episode revealed a long history of genetic engineering within the Federation . It has been oft-speculated (by some fans) that there may simply be no homosexual people in the 24th century due to these past procedures, though this is assuming that in the future sexual orientation is shown to be caused by genetic biological factors, which is not yet a fact. However, even if this is true, then it would not explain the homoerotic subtext that seemed to arise in the series. The most debated character was Elim Garak (played by Andrew Robinson ), an exiled Cardassian who operated a tailor's shop on the space station. The speculation was that the writers were trying to slip in subtle hints about this character's bisexuality. He had a slightly effeminate voice and mannerisms. His career choice was seen as effeminate and a subject of scorn by other, more macho Cardassians, and he had close friendship with Julian Bashir (played by Alexander Siddig ) The two-part episode " Improbable Cause " and " The Die Is Cast " showed Garak's connections to the criminal underworld (with an effeminate extraterrestrial who made poisons out of perfume chemicals) and he had a shady relationship with a former mentor (Enabran Tain, who was revealed to be Garak's father towards the end of the series) that was often spoken of in coded Ancient Greek terminology. Eventually the character was given a female love interest, and his coy friendship with Julian Bashir lost its mystique. Nevertheless, many fans felt that Garak was bisexual, if not gay (particularly considering he often indicated that he did not welcome Tora Ziyal 's interest in him in anything other than a friend). {Link without Title} (Though officially, it was because he didn't want an innocent like her getting mixed up with a shady character such as himself). Also in an Amazon.com interview, Robinson had noted that he felt that Garak was not gay or straight, thus suggesting that he might be bisexual. After Garak, the debate often centered around the shape shifter and head of security on the space station named Odo (played by Rene Auberjonois ). While he was never effeminate and on several occasions expressed romantic interest in members of the opposite sex, episodes that focused on his life and other shape shifters (or " Changeling s") were often seen as an applicable allegory to being gay. One episode in particular, when another (more avowed) shape shifter visits the space station, was peppered with dialogue about the need of shape shifters to be discreet and not to parade around the station in "changeling pride parades". Odo often links with this shape shifter, who encourages them to link in public. In other episodes (notably "A Simple Investigation") Odo is heard to explicitly describe linking as a sexual experience. However, one of the series-running storyarcs was Odo's unspoken love for the female Kira Nerys, which was openly stated at the beginning of season 3 but which some fans feel was intimated in subtext since the first episode. However, it would be the Trill female named Jadzia Dax (played by Terry Farrell ) who gave fans the first same-sex kiss in Star Trek history. In the 1995 episode titled " Rejoined ", Jadzia considers reuniting with another female Trill, Dr. Lenara Kahn. This was not a sign that same-sex marriage was legal in the future, but rather an extension of the TNG episode " The Host ". The Dax and Kahn symbiots had been married, while the Dax symbiot was joined to a male host and the Kahn symbiot was joined with a different female host. However by reuniting the two Trill would be violating a Trill taboo against re-establishing relationships of past hosts. Hence, the two women agree to part ways at the end of the episode and Jadzia Dax would return to dating men. While "Rejoined" was a continuation of the themes explored in "The Host", the DS9 series did allow otherwise heterosexual characters to become gay or Bisexual in an alternative universe (thus prompting some fans to suggest that Paramount felt that ''alternative life-styles'' belonged in alternative universes). Major/Colonel Kira Nerys (played by Nana Visitor ) existed in an alternative or mirror universe where she was bisexual. Alternate Kira flirted with her double and the double of Jadzia Dax, but was especially known to have a sexual relationship with Ezri Tigan . Ezri also had some sexual contact with Leeta and several other background and supernumary personnel were lesbian. In addition to the (almost universal) lesbianism in the mirror universe, a mild touch of male homosexuality was introduced when Garak offered sexual favours to Worf . The mirror universe was always shown as being more sinister then the normal universe, and so the response to the idea that otherwise heterosexual characters became bisexual in certain situations or parallel worlds was mixed. Some stations in the Southern United States edited out the lesbian kiss in "Rejoined", while some fans felt that the usage of the darker, alternative universe to allow certain characters to become bisexual was a case of poor writing or catering to homophobia or biphobia. As a side note, in the episode " Rules Of Acquisition ", Pel is a Ferengi who is in love with Quark . Pel is really a female pretending to be a male, in order to have a career in the sexist Ferengi society. When Pel confesses to Dax that she is in love with Quark, Dax acknowledges that she had that feeling. Pel, surprised, questions if Dax really knew she was actually female where Dax responds, "You're female?" suggesting homophobia isn't the problem it is today and homosexuals exist in the 24th century (at least Ferengi ones). When Quark learns that Pel is really a female, he rejects her offer of a romantic and business partnership because he does not want to be an outcast in Ferengi society, for having a female wife who was also his business partner. In the episode "Profit and Lace", Quark himself would briefly be surgically altered to become a woman in a failed attempt to persuade a powerful Ferengi businessman that there would be profit in overturning the traditional Ferengi social code that Ferengi women should be naked. Later in the episode, Quark and the Ferengi businessman would share a kiss while Quark was still in the guise of a female, becoming ''Star Trek'''s first male same-sex kiss. The last season of ''Star Trek: Deep Space Nine'' ( 1999 ) had an episode titled " Field Of Fire " in which Dax, now in the body of a new female host, has to track down a Vulcan murderer on the space station. One of the victims was an alien, played by a male actor, who was described as having a co-husband. This led some fans to suggest that this episode was asserting that same-sex marriages were eventually given legal recognition in the Star Trek future, while other fans suggested that this meant that Polygamy and not same-sex marriages were legally recognized. In a 2000 ''Fandom ''interview, Ronald D. Moore suggested that the reason why no gay characters existed in television franchise was because someone wanted it that way, and no amount of support from fans, cast or crew was going to make any difference. :"Tell me why there are no gay characters in Star Trek," says Ron Moore. "This is one of those uncomfortable questions I hate getting when I was working on the show, because there is no good answer for it. There is no answer for it other than people in charge don’t want gay characters in Star Trek, period... That’s one of the great things about Paramount. Paramount left us alone. They always left us alone. They let Next Gen do whatever it wanted. God knows it let Deep Space Nine do whatever we wanted. It lets Voyager do whatever it wants. The studio is not the problem here. The studio is going to let you go wherever you want to go, as long as they believe that this is quality, as long as they believe it’s good work. You’ve just got to come up with something good." Comments like this have sent a message to fans that while the cast, crew, and even the Paramount studio is open to the idea of having gay characters on the television franchise, someone that controls the franchise, but not the studio itself, has made his prohibition position on this issue very clear. {Link without Title} ''STAR TREK: VOYAGER'' When ''Voyager'' came to air, fans created the "Voyager Visibility Project" in an effort to persuade the series to have one its crew-members to be established as having a gay or bisexual orientation. The club was able to get the endorsement of Roddenberry's grandson, Richard Compton Jr. {Link without Title} In a letter to the fan club he wrote: :"I wholeheartedly support the Voyager Visibility Project's efforts to add an on-going gay or lesbian character to ''Star Trek: Voyager.'' I feel that the producers of ''Voyager'' fail to exhibit the social foresight that my grandfather has shown. Only through 20th Century activism can the 23rd Century goal of a hateless society be met." ( April 29 , 1996 ) The club created enough of a letter writing campaign, that in was going to be heterosexual, and afterwards Taylor explained that her suggestion was rejected by an unnamed superior. Yet, as we saw with DS9, Voyager was able to drop hints about a hero's or villain's sexuality as long as it was never developed. In the episode " Warlord ", Kes' body is possessed by a male political extremist named Tieran, whom while in Kes' body engages in romantic relationships with both men and women, and even announces his engagement to another man. In one scene while possessed, Kes almost kisses another female, but is called away at the last moment. Later in the episode, she does kiss Tuvok, technically being a same-sex kiss. In the episode " Ashes To Ashes ", a female crew-member returns from the dead and subsequently wants to leave the starship. The episode contained a joke where she goes on a Date one evening with Captain Janeway who tries unsuccessfully to convince her to stay. It is never explained if this was a romantic evening or a platonic expression of bonding and friendship between two women. In the episode titled " The Killing Game, Part I " the crew thinks it is living in Nazi -occupied France and Captain Janeway becomes the owner of a nightclub where it is implied, but again never developed, that she is romantically involved with Seven of Nine. In the episodes "The Killing Game, Part I" and " Dark Frontier, Part II ", sections of dialogue seemed to suggest that Seven of Nine might at least be bisexual even as her official story-line required that she be heterosexual. In 2002 Kate Mulgrew (who played Captain Janeway) gave an interview to ''Metrosource'' where she spoke candidly about the issue of LGBT characters in the ''Star Trek'' television universe. :"[...] because of its both political and potentially incendiary substance. I'm in a minority as well, as a woman. It took a lot of courage on their part to hire a woman. I think that right up until the end they were very dubious about it. It's one thing to cast a subordinate Black, Asian or woman, but to put them in leading role means the solid endorsement of one of the largest studios in the world. And that goes for a gay character as well. It requires a terrific social conscience on their part and the pledge of some solidarity and unanimity, which I think is probably at the source of most of this problem to get every one of those executives on board regarding this decision." {Link without Title} That same year Mulgrew was even more blunt about the topic in an August 2002 interview for '' Out In America '': :"Well, one would think that Hollywood would be more open-minded at this point, since essentially the whole town is run by the gay community. It makes very little sense if you think about it. No, ''Star Trek'' is very strangely by the book in this regard. Rick Berman, who is a very sagacious man, has been very firm about certain things. I've approached him many, many times over the years about getting a gay character on the show — one whom we could really love, not just a guest star. Y'know, we had blacks, Asians, we even had a handicapped character — and so I thought, this is now beginning to look a bit absurd. And he said, "In due time." And so, I'm suspecting that on ''Enterprise'' they will do something to this effect. I couldn't get it done on mine. And I am sorry for that." {Link without Title} Other cast and crew members have been asked this question before over the years, but none of them mentioned any names, even though many fans felt that Rick Berman 's had a role in the lack of gay characters on the series and these fans tied it to an accusation that Berman was betraying Roddenberry's progressive vision. When '''' began to air on television, the issue of LGBT character once again arose and with new intensity as fans felt that Star Trek was behind other television shows in the integration of LGBT characters and because it was believed that this would be the last ''Star Trek ''television series for a long time. ''STAR TREK: ENTERPRISE'' The longtime debate over whether ''Star Trek'' should include a gay character reached a head with ''Enterprise''. In a 2002 interview with ''Metrosource'' Actor Scott Bakula (who played Captain Jonathan Archer ) expressed his support for the idea as had the TNG actors Patrick Stewart and Jonathan Frakes in the 1990s . In the interview Bakula said: :"I'm not really familiar with the history of this particular issue with regards to ''Star Trek; ''in fact, the first I ever heard of it was at our first junket when somebody asked if there was going to be an opportunity for a gay or lesbian character on the show. I was surprised at the question, because I had just assumed that over the course of the years that it had been addressed. I was surprised it was even an issue. Since then I haven't sat down with Rick and Brannon to discuss it. It does seem awkward nothing has ever happened . I haven't heard anything coming down the pipeline, but I would be in favor of it. 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." [http://www.scottbakulaonline.com/articles/metrosource02.htm] When the series began in 2001 there were some rumors that the character Malcolm Reed (played by Dominic Keating ) would be gay. A fan named Andy Mangels asked Dominic Keating at the Creation Star Trek Convention in Portland, January, 2002 , whether his character would be gay, (While Keating is heterosexual himself, as a British actor he had worked in a drag act called "Feeling Mutual" in order to receive his Equity card. This seemed to make him the best candidate). Keating said that it had been discussed and rejected. Dialogue between Riker and Reed in the final episode was edited to acknowledge this issue (Riker is talking to Reed about a male crewmate, and asks "Do you think he's attractive?", after which the camera pulls off of Riker and it is revealed that the scene had jumped fowards in time and he is now asking the question of a female crewman). The doctor aboard the Enterprise, Phlox , was a Denobulan. His species practiced group marriages. He had three wives, who in turn each had two husbands. It is unclear what matings resulted from these marriages. The series did air an episode with some social commentary about AIDS. The episode " Stigma " ( 2003 ) revealed that the Vulcan named T'Pol (played by Jolene Blalock ) had become infected with a disease similar to AIDS from a forced mind meld. The Vulcans infected with this disease are outcasts in the society (until a cure is found in the last season) and thus the social message of the episode was that people infected with AIDS deserve human dignity and compassion while we work together for a cure. The fan response was mixed. Most fans enjoyed the episode because it was doing what Roddenberry had intended; use the science fiction fantasy to offer politically progressive social commentary. On the downside, the episode was criticized for offering a social commentary that was rather bland and not likely to produce much discussion in comparison to other television series such as '' Law & Order '', '' ER '', and '' Buffy The Vampire Slayer ''. Also some fans felt that treating a mind meld as the means of transmission to a AIDS-like disease seemed to only encourage the Pornographic Slash Fiction that exists online that implies that Spock and James T. Kirk were lovers. Further, the series only made the "AIDS episode" when UPN (the network ''Enterprise'' was on) told all of its programs to make AIDS-related episodes for an awareness month; a plaque actually ran on screen immediately after the final scene giving HIV internet contact information. Several critics disparaged the exectuve producers for only making an episode addressing HIV when they were directly "ordered" to by the network. Recently, one Enterprise episode titled " Cogenitor " has been suggested as a possibly introducing another Transgender -type alien race into the Star Trek franchise. In the episode, the Enterprise crews meets a new alien race, and finds out that the Cogenitor is a rare "third sex" minority that while being required for the alien races reproduction is otherwise abused and treated as a slave. As was the case with the Star Trek The Next Generation episode titled " The Outcast " (1992), the "alternative" sexual orientation is brought onto the Enterprise (as we all know that all humans are heterosexual in the franchise) by a new alien race (never to be seen again). One of the aliens attempts to break away from the mold, there is no discussion of Earth's own Gay Rights history, and a cryptic plea for tolerance before the transgender alien ends up committing suicide at the end of the episode. ''Enterprise'' ended without any LGBT characters and a tame social message about how humanity should be nice to people infected with AIDS, and what seemed to be a remake of the STTNG outcast episode. In an April 2003 interview with ''Trekweb'', Berman stated, "'Stigma' was supposed to be our gay episode, but we sort of copped out." While new episodes of ''Enterprise'' will no longer be aired, there has been rumors circulating, by fans, on the Internet that there was a three-part episode of the series that might have been produced had the series had more seasons, and would have been a ''gay episode''. If the rumors are true, the first part of the story arch would have been a gay rights version of the Original Star Trek episode Let That Be Your Last Battlefield. A young Lesbian couple (a daughter of the Royal family and a political dissident) would flee to the Enterprise seeking political asylum from a government agent that wants to bring these two women back to stand trial for treason and Homosexuality . The second two episodes would have taken the Enterprise crew to the aliens homeland (similar to the German Weimar Republic ) and storylines would have explicity dealt with the issue of how the Federation has gotten past bigotry and oppression based on Race , Religion and Sexual Orientation , the rise of a Fascist regime in the alien homeworld and even the appearance of Q as the secret masked man some how giving aid to a Hitler-esque member of the fascist political party. The third episode would have launched the beginning of a war, to allude to how the civilization's racism and sexism lead to its destruction by decades of civil and nuclear war. It is unclear if these Internet rumors refer to some fan fiction or an unproduced television script. However, there are other types of official and unofficial Star Trek spinoffs that have dealt with the issue of LGBT characters and Homophobia . FAN FICTION In 2000 a group of Star Trek Fans have started to create and film their own low budget ''Star Trek ''television series and air the episodes online. The fan based Star Trek: Hidden Frontier has included some gay crew-members and managed to avoid becoming the subject of a lawsuit from Paramount. COMPUTER AND VIDEO GAMES In ,'' featuring voice talents from the television series of the same name. One of the levels involved going to a tropical world where aliens of the male gender were second class citizens, and Commander Data at one point made a reference to his kidnapping by the art collector in "The Most Toys". In '' for Windows and the PlayStation 2 . The game, a First-person Shooter built around the Quake III Engine , allowed the player to choose between male and female avatars; irrespective of the gender chosen, a female character would flirt with the protagonist later on in the game. Interestingly enough, the official Paramont Star Trek website, directs visitors to the STTNG episode "The Outcast" and a news article about the recent decision of actor George Takei to come out the closet when they do a search for the word "gay" {Link without Title} . NOVELS AND COMIC BOOKS Star Trek novels and comic books appear to be under a much less stricter standard when it comes to addresing LGBT issues in the franchise. References to bisexuality occurred in '', in a foreword allegedly written by James Kirk that wryly dismisses claims that he had had a sexual relationship with Spock. Similarly, early Star Trek novels written by Vonda McIntyre , such as ''The Entropy Effect'' had subplots referencing alternative lifestyles and family arrangements. McIntyre's novelizations of ''The Wrath of Khan'' (1982) and ''The Search for Spock'' (1984) also made reference, in passing, to such themes. The thrust of these references is that sexual orientation was simply not an issue and that the characters felt free to engage in whatever relationships they desired, irrespective of their gender. Della Van Hise 's '' Star Trek '' novel '' Killing Time '' is infamous for its Kirk/Spock content (which was considerably more blatant in an early draft that was published by mistake). In the ) established Lieutenant Hawk as being gay and having a boyfriend. OPPOSITION The notion of adding a gay or bisexual character to ''Star Trek'' has been a controversial idea with some factions of Trek fandom. Social conservatives tend to oppose it due to their religious or moral objections to homosexuality (or suggesting that it was some how "cured" in the future). More moderate or progressive heterosexual fans tend to feel that what references do exist are more than enough; arguing that people would not identify themselves as being gay, in a utopian future free of homophobia. However, many LGBT fans remain critical of the series. Although the argument in favor of a LGBT character in televised or theatrical ''Trek'' appears moot given the current Moribund state of the franchise, it is expected to rise again once any future production is announced. REFERENCES
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