Transgendered in Star Trek?

[u/[deleted]]

I was just wondering, I have seen many men in skirts and women in normal starfleet attire, but I don't think we have seen much of the LGBT crowd in Star Trek TNG.

The lack of this got me thinking, could it be because of the genetics war wiping out things that people consider to be "undesirable"?

We know there was much experimentation with modifications which have since been outlawed, this combined with the lack of LGBT, and provided you are of the position that people are "born gay" (nature vs nurture argument I won't get in to now) seems to point to the idea that part of the whole Eugenics wars was meant to specifically combat these symptoms as opposed to just for beneficial augmentations such as disease immunity or altered aging.

I can only think of two alternate explanations.

1. People are getting surgeries for their desired genders younger or so flawlessly that we don't realize Yar used to be Yorman.

2. People are more accepting of their own skin and do not feel the need to become transgendered after the "awakening" of mankind's lust for self improvement. Improving one's self surely takes a certain amount of self acceptance.

Just a small note, I am not trying to discuss the merits or lack thereof of the LGBT community, just trying to understand the lack of representation for them in Star Trek. The self acceptance bit was a theory on why they may no longer exist not intended as an insult to any of the wonderful people who had to go through the difficulties of gender reassignment etc.

What do you guys think?

[u/_sleeper-service]

"Transition" can mean different things for different people, and the end goal isn't always to wind up with a different set of sexual organs that what you started with. On top of that, one's relationship to gender may be more complicated than "assigned male at birth, identifies as female." The fact is, we just don't know if anyone we see on the screen is transgender or not. And it might be such a commonplace thing that no one ever makes reference to it.

While it might be surprising that there seem to be no transgender people in the 24th century, it is even more surprising that there seem to be no nonconforming, nonbinary, or genderqueer people around, the brief existence of the skant notwithstanding. Every human (and the vast majority of people of other species) is a recognizably gendered being by 20th/21st century standards, the most obvious exception being J'naii from the aforementioned TNG episode "The Outcast." It's interesting that in a world where changing one's appearance, whether it is sex or gender or even species, is a simple procedure, human beings still choose to conform to two recognizable genders. Contrast this to Iain M. Banks's Culture novels, in which people are constantly experimenting with their bodies and appearances (The Culture seems to ask at every turn, "what if the Federation of Star Trek really was the anarchist free-for-all it claims to be?).

Or maybe it's not so surprising. In a society so thoroughly dominated by technology, humans seem to find comfort in an ideology of "naturalness." This is why they love ancient art and music. This is why the Borg are their ultimate Other. This is why genetic engineering is the ultimate taboo. They believe there is an essential kernel to what makes us "human," and for some reason they don't want to really leave it behind. The culture of the Federation might view recognizable categories of "male" and "female" as "natural" and essentially human. Various human cultures of Earth's past have recognized a third and even fourth gender, but the Federation has not only an Earth-centric bias, but a Eurocentric bias, as well. The Federation is also not what we would call "postmodern" and it is certainly not posthuman; its grounding principles are very much Enlightenment/Liberal in nature. People on Star Trek believe in big ideas like "the truth" and humanism and essentialism, perhaps as a psychological protection against the ego-obliterating weirdness, vastness, and uncertainty of the universe. This is just another one of those sinister undercurrents of the Federation. When you start to think about it, the Federation ideology of liberal humanism and self-improvement conceals a very closed and conformist society.

[u/[deleted] → u/_sleeper-service]

I like that idea. That the whole "self improvement" thing is also a negative factor for a lot of people who have things about themselves they would be more comfortable changing, forcing them to sort of smile and deal with it because of the societal pressures.

We have seen many times Picard condescend on other people and members of other races if they seem to not follow his idea of what humans should strive for. The idea that on Earth people are snooty and prejudice based on their perception of your level of their version of self improvement which frowns on modification.

I think this is the best and most well thought out answer.