10 Biggest LGBTQIA+ Moments In Star Trek
Happy Pride Month from the Final Frontier to your communicator or computer console.
As Pride Month 2021 is drawing to a close, TrekCulture has put together a discussion list of some of the biggest LGBTQIA+ moments in Star Trek as a franchise. While it took a while for the shows to address this section of the fandom, more and more episodes recently have centered on relevant topics. However, this is not something that is unique to Star Trek: Discovery, even if that is the first series to depict openly gay characters.
There have been attempts through the years to bring LGBTQIA+ issues to the screen, whether through allusion or actual depictions. Few people wouldn't just think of Rejoined when thinking of same-sex pairings in Star Trek, and the Trill, in general, are among the most sexually open in the galaxy. Even if they have their own taboos about certain interpretations on love.
This list not only encapsulates the main series but also some of the expanded canon as well. There is an argument that it may not be valid, though Gene Roddenberry himself said that before he died, he had planned to introduce gay characters. It wouldn't happen in the show for quite a while, so some of the additional writers took it upon themselves.
This Pride Month, enjoy some of the most important LGBTQIA+ moments in Star Trek's history.
10. The Trill Do Not Care About Gender-Based Relationships
The Host was the episode of The Next Generation that introduced the audience to the Trill. Though we didn't initially know that they were a joined species, this quickly became apparent once Dr. Crusher's new love interest, Ambassador Odan, was critically injured in an accident. His symbiont was transferred to Commander Riker, and was then subsequently transferred to a female Trill host.
The issue with the final scene in the episode is not that the Trill have a problem with same-sex pairing. If anything, Crusher's dialogue suggests that it is still humanity that is struggling with different variations of romance and relationships. She says that there is still a struggle to see different ways of loving - none of which is reflected in Odan herself.
Here, the Trill are shown as a species to whom the death of the host and a change of gender mean nothing. This would change a little in later descriptions, but for their first appearance, it was both a bold, if muted, statement on how different races viewed love.