Star Trek: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Dax

Dax's character has always resonated strongly with members of the queer community.

The iconic episode Rejoined included a kiss between Jadzia and the wife of her former host—one of the first televised kisses between two women. The episode also showed a lesbian love story in a way that wasn't sensationalised, sexualised, or treated as odd in any way. Their love was forbidden, not because they were gay, but because of Trill laws regarding reassociation. This allowed the story to tell an allegory of gay oppression inside a world that was beyond homophobia.

Many trans people also see themselves in Dax. Dax was friends with Sisko when they were living as a man, but later became Jadzia. The two remained very close friends, but their relationship was changed in subtle ways. This is very similar to many trans people's experiences when coming out to friends. Sisko even had to adjust to using new pronouns and a new name for her. Likewise, Dax adjusted to her own new identity as well.

Years after Deep Space Nine, at Star Trek Las Vegas 2019, Terry Farrell confirmed that she imagined Jadzia as pansexual—something we all assumed to begin with. The character canonically loved both men and women, after all. Jadzia, and later Ezri, made so many queer people feel represented at a time where good representation was much harder to find.