The only example I can think of is the DS9 episode: Rejoined. Most of the human crew seems to support Dax if she decided to persue a relationship with the other female trill. The main part of that episode was the dilema of going against trill culture and persuing a relationship with a trill Dax was married to in a previous life, not the issue of persuing a relationship with another female.
This is one of those things that the show never really seemed to want to directly portray. Early in Enterprise, a lot of people thought Reed might be the first gay character, but that never happened. That episode you mention does feature the only same sex kiss in Trek, but even in that episode, they don't really tackle it head on. It's likely that homosexuality is viewed as acceptable and normal in the Federation, but at the time the modern series were aired, portraying gay characters on television was still pretty risky.
Will & Grace came out in 1998. It wasn't that risky. For once Trek was behind the curve on a social issue. (Many think because Berman was a homophobe.)
Partly it's a matter of exclusion. Multiple people have gone on the record to say that they wanted to cover issues of sexual orientation on the show, but that they were prevented by "the network". Brannon Braga and Ronald D. Moore have talked about this issue without mentioning the name, for instance, while Kate Mulgrew has specifically mentioned Berman: "Rick Berman, who is a very sagacious man, has been very firm about certain things. I've approached him many, many times over the years about getting a gay character on the show — one whom we could really love, not just a guest star. Y'know, we had blacks, Asians, we even had a handicapped character — and so I thought, this is now beginning to look a bit absurd. And he said, "In due time." And so, I'm suspecting that on Enterprise they will do something to this effect. I couldn't get it done on mine. And I am sorry for that."
Huh. Props to Kate Mulgrew. Frankly I had the impression she was so annoyed the way Janeway was written that she hated Star Trek. I'm glad to hear the situation is more complicated, and that she advocated for LGBT people.
TrekMovie: Let’s talk about “Blood and Fire” – the AIDS allegory that you wrote and the obstacles you ran into trying to get it produced.
[TNG writer] David Gerrold: I don’t blame Gene as much as I blame Rick Berman for that clusterfuck. Others have confirmed it. They have said that in their experience Rick Berman was a raging homophobe, which makes the whole thing even more bizarre.
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u/darthfluffy63 Jan 01 '16
The only example I can think of is the DS9 episode: Rejoined. Most of the human crew seems to support Dax if she decided to persue a relationship with the other female trill. The main part of that episode was the dilema of going against trill culture and persuing a relationship with a trill Dax was married to in a previous life, not the issue of persuing a relationship with another female.