'Star Trek' Writer & Producer Regrets Not Creating A Gay Character

[Brian Damage]

Brannon Braga — who cut his teeth writing and producing Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Deep Space Nine — lamented the fact that Star Trek has never once included an out gay character in a movie or TV series. “It was a shame for a lot of us,” Braga said. “It was not a forward-thinking decision.” Yes, there was the occasional episode where, say, Commander Riker falls in love with an alien from a genderless world, or Dr. Crusher falls in love with a male alien who (thanks the symbiotic organism living inside it, naturally) changes bodies to a female — who Crusher then spurns. But as far as an out-and-proud same-sex loving character, the otherwise socially progressive and diverse Star Trek universe is stuck in the closet.

Braga does contended that had the shows been airing today, the TNG and DS9 creative teams “wouldn’t have been squeamish” about introducing a gay Trek character. Perhaps. For one thing, I always kinda wondered if Data, in his exploration of what it means to be human, would ever get intimate with a male crew-mate the same way he did with Tasha Yar. (Slash fiction tells me I am not alone in this overshare.) I also got to thinking: What other TV series have a surprisingly specific lack of diversity? I’m not talking about quotas here, by the way. I’m talking about TV shows in which the setting and premise naturally provide for a widely diverse cast — or in the case of Star Trek outright demand it — yet nonetheless are notably missing a key subset of society.

http://popwatch.ew.com/2011/01/25/st...ersity/?hpt=C2

[Retro4Life]

Two female characters (well, one of which was a Trill, who kind of switches bodies and genders every once in a while) on the wonderful and underrated "Star Trek: Deep Space Nine".