Star Trek’s first Gay Kiss

emFilm & TV, Films & TV 16 Comments

Star Trek: Discovery is boldly going where no other Star Trek series has gone before. Last month the space drama introduced Anthony Rapp’s character, Lt. Stamets, as the first openly gay character in the television history of the franchise. But the show took things a step further this week by featuring a same-sex kiss between Stamets and his partner, Dr Hugh Culber, played by fellow out actor Wilson Cruz.

The franchise has been known for pushing boundaries since it first aired in 1966, and came under fire in the late ’60s for featuring an interracial kiss between the characters Kirk and Uhura.

Despite being known as groundbreaking, the episode still faced homophobic criticism from fans who don’t like seeing a happy gay couple on their TVs. But Cruz had a response for anyone who had a problem with Discovery’s queer representation.

“I’m not here for your comfort,” he wrote in a poignant Facebook post. “That’s not why we are here. We’re here to grow.”

Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu was portrayed as a married gay man by actor John Cho in the film Star Trek: Beyond, but a scene rumored to show a kiss between Sulu and his husband was ultimately cut from the film.

Comments 16

  1. Star Trek Discovery is going where no other Star Trek series has gone before – CBS All Access – a pay-for-play subscription service dedicated Trekkies like me won’t go near. Screw CBS. Either broadcast the damn show or kill it. Not interested in buying CBS All Access.

    Discovery is panned by Trekkies for lots of reasons, least of which is queers on the crew. We’ve lived with Buddhist-level liberalism for almost half a century, we can take a boy-boy kiss. Check out the Discovery videos and comments on YouTube. Bottom line= the show stinks. We want science fiction, not political correctness, we want spacemen, not social justice warriors. This series practically ‘takes a knee’ to Starfleet and all the preceding series’.

    1. Still a piss boy that can’t handle the fact that Spacey is a way better actor. “Kevin Spacey thought I was attractive so I have to destroy him 30 years later”…

  2. 😀Anyone watch Fox’s new show, “The Orville”? Two same sex characters just had a baby, think alien ‘gay’. Sort of reminds me of Cam & Mitch on ABC’s “Modern Family”.

    1. I do, but sadly it’s so stupid and unrealistic… I understand it doesn’t has a big budget but still, all the cultural references are from our time and prior (and only US), like the next 200 years nothing happened… and of course they all speak english, even cultures they just discovered, so stating they have a translation device doesn’t change this stupidity at all. Every single episode is full of logical fallacies, it’s frustrating, like watching the walking dead…

      1. Marvin…

        I guess The Orville isn’t for you then. But, just as the original Star Trek series before it, it wasn’t interested in precision, but in social commentary, and humor. The episodes on the baby sex-change, and mob justice, were very well done.

        Seriously, where do you expect the cultural references to come from? The future hasn’t happened here yet. They can only come from the past, or they aren’t references at all.

        Unlike STD, at least The Orville deals with relevant issues, doesn’t make you slog pointlessly through subtitles and gibberish, and isn’t destroying the legacy of a once-loved universe with ridiculous inconsistencies.

        1. But come on, for example in the episode about the sex change they just happen to find out that the famous author is actually a girl, just scan the planet for females… because a specie that hates females wouldn’t do that… it’s insulting.

          I mean I still watch it, but it’s frustrating.

          PS: On the same episode they talk about circumcision and say it’s fine. Where is the relevant social commentary in that? On the really difficult topics they are silent.

  3. Back in the 60s this show did push boundaries. However this time they are a little late to the finish line. For more than a decade we have gay kiss scenes on tv, today they are a dime a dozen.
    I wish it had been Star Trek that was the ground breaker on this, but in this case they are just another show jumping on the bandwagon.

  4. The thing between Rapp and Spacey, not going to comment that, even though it was kinda question of time before Spacey was outed, I’m surprised Bryan Singer, part of the Spacey entourage at times has not been implicate at this time.

    I find it inspiring that also Star Trek discusses gay issues. It’s it has been quite a progressive series in the past, for example discussing issues of race and society in the original series.

    In any case, mentioning Hikaru Sulu, and simultaneously not mentioning openly gay, gay activist, George Taksi, is strange to say the least. He is a wonderful person, internment camp survivor and should be an inspiration for everyone.

    About the complaints about CBS, thankfully I live outside of US, where Star Trek Discovery is available through Netflix, with quite agreeable monthly pricing.

    1. Interesting you should bring up Takei, because apparently he’s little better than a rapist at the moment. Did you miss that? He’s been accused right alongside Weinstein and Spacey and all the rest. And he was on radio basically admitting to similar behavior. Then there was that time Milo got into trouble for saying his own experience with an adult hadn’t harmed him, and Takei made similar statements about himself, but only Milo was canned for it. Takei did not come to his defence.

      Takei is a coward and a hypocrite, and as such he deserves what he’s getting right now. It’s NOT OK to be Takei. It’s OK to be T’Kuvma.

      1. He’s been accused right alongside Weinstein and Spacey and all the rest.”

        That’s right …. He’s been accused …. it hasn’t bee PROVEN yet. It might be, but not yet.

        And I find it somewhat pathetic that there’s such a “sexual perversion” bandwagon now — back in the day, when a boy/man made some move on a girl/woman, he usually got slapped hard, and he usually left with his “tail between his legs” [ego hurt]. There wasn’t any public condemnation or threat of pending lawsuits.

        Now, I’m not saying that some aren’t deserving of lawsuits, but it seems we’ve gone “Law & Order” crazy in today’s society.

  5. Good grief. “No other Star Trek series” is not true. Two fan series (Phase II, and Hidden Frontier) had gay kisses in them first. In fact, TNG and DS9 had same-sex kisses, although not with stereotypically gay characters.

    And The Orville is essentially TNG by another name, and their gay couple had a BABY in one of the early episodes!

    As for Rapp, yeah, can’t stand him as person, or as an actor. For his entire career, he’s only ever had one expression. I guess that’s talent. Sort of. With any luck, his character will soon be killed off by too many jumps. Rickie can do better. Perhaps Lt Milton Richter, Lt jg R.A. Bryce, or dare I suggest Cdr Wilson, which would have a nice poetry to it.

  6. @horselips: You are anything but a Trekkie. You clearly have not a single clue what Star Trek is about.

    1. Star Trek is a lot of things. Whatever about it that’s important to me may not be that important to you, and vice versa. And Discovery still sucks.

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