Comment on Karim Diané on playing Star Trek’s first gay Klingon
andrewrgross@slrpnk.net 2 days ago
Setting aside a tiny fraction of people who – as Diane points out in the article – make their living farming outrage, does anyone actually care about a gay character on Star Trek in the year 2026?
Also, I assume that many of the Klingons we’ve seen on Star Trek over the years were gay. I think he’s just the first Klingon which was identified to the audience as gay.
According to Karim’s recent AMA here, yes, a lot. I’m old but I have to imagine it’s a lot harder being a queer kid in 2026 than it was a decade ago!
Also, I assume that many of the Klingons we’ve seen on Star Trek over the years were gay. I think he’s just the first Klingon which was identified to the audience as gay.
Also yes, the headline makes it clear this is Star Trek’s first gay Klingon. Not *the Klingon species’ *first gay member.
I care on how it’s done, what the writers do with it. I despise the current writers of Trek and they haven’t been able to make a single interesting topic, or do anything interesting with the topics they borrowed.
I hear “gay Klingon” and all I see is another excuse to call everyone who hates NuTrek a bigot.
You know, there’s a solid case to be made for what you’re saying, but you should know you’re not doing a good job of making it.
I think there are people who would agree that the choices seem shallow or pandering (not a claim I’m making, just recognizing others might). But if you don’t say clearly why the writing disappoints you, you don’t have any justification to be indignant when people assume that it’s because you’re a bigot.
I’m not accusing you of that. I’m just telling you how your comment reads.
does anyone actually care about a gay character on Star Trek in the year 2026?
Well, yes - plenty of people care about, and celebrate, representation.
“A Russian in a USS ship? This cannot be”
“A bald captain? This cannot be”
“A woman captain? This cannot be”
…
The same people that said Tilly didn’t belong in ST because weight are the same that say people in STA are too good looking. Chose one side, people. Either “no non perfect people” or “no beautiful people”, not both.
Wait, people think Tilly is fat??
We can all see she’s overweight
I can’t. My perceptions have been altered by the high prevalence of obesity in our society. I now have higher standards. She looks a little thicker than most people, but not in a way I’d been conscious of before today.
Being overweight is in an entirely different category than the other attributes you mentioned because it’s a choice, and more importantly because physical fitness is directly relevant to a soldier or sailor’s ability to perform their duty. In fact, the show itself addresses this: there are scenes that show Tilly jogging around the ship so that she can get a “physical endurance commendation” and be more likely to get into the Command Training Program.
If she were a civilian character, sure: no judgement, no problem. But having an overweight military officer (especially if they hadn’t acknowledged and addressed it the way they did) would be problematic in a legitimate, non-judgemental, suspension-of-disbelief-defying way.
(That said, I don’t think Tilly was anywhere near big enough for fan complaints to actually be legitimate. I’m just saying that, in principle, that category of complaint could be legitimate for that type of character, in contrast to complaints about race/sex/hair that are never valid.)
But you’ll agree that they can’t be mad at once for Tilli not being fit and for the students in Academy for being too fit.
I like how he rocks the skirt, I’m glad SFA finally resolved the skirt thing by having absolute gender chaos.
Worf: I do not see why it is necessary to wear these… ridiculous uniforms.
Riker: Protocol.
Worf: They look like dresses.
Riker: That is an incredibly outmoded and sexist attitude! I’m surprised at you. Besides, you look good in a dress.
That’s true in theory, but TNG still had a gender imbalance in who chooses to wear what under normal circumstances. And of course there’s Berman’s sexism with Troi’s clothes. SFA has complete gender equality.
Was there ever an explanation for why Troi was always dressed for jazzercize? She was a regular Starfleet officer, wasn’t she?
Depends what platform you’re on. Facebook? Omfg. They think the whole series is worth abandoning because of the “woke” agenda. Even though ST has been woke since 1960.
Personally, I don’t give a fuck. Kind of like in a game. If a character turns out gay, then so be it. I have no emotion towards it. Overall Academy is a fun series. Just finished the Stars episode with The Doctor and Sam. Fantastic episode. Looking forward to cleaning up the first season
A lot of people didn’t give a fuck about Uhura being on the bridge, but that is not a reason to NOT include her character on the bridge. Just because you don’t consider yourself bigoted does not mean that gay characters should not be celebrated for breaking new ground.
I prefer every player-romanceable character in video games to be bi. If an NPC is monosexual, they should go date another NPC. If a character is ace, then there’s no problem. But I don’t like monosexual characters that date one player character but not the other.
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tacosanonymous@mander.xyz 2 days ago
I care. It’s pretty cool.
MadMadBunny@lemmy.ca 2 days ago
Same. And Diané absolutely rocks the character. A+ acting.
Dr_Fetus_Jackson@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Agreed. An engaging character that, like Star Trek is oft wont to do, has an interesting arc that challenges the status quo and pushes for understanding.