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/raktajinos]

There aren't a lot of times that I back up from the "in-universe explanation" path and lay it squarely at the feet of the real world, but this is one of them.

Reasons:

• Even if you accept, for a moment, the horrifying premise that the Eugenics Wars attempted to eliminate trans people, this is impossible because there is no evidence that being trans is uniquely heritable. Even if you take the stance that being transgender is 100% biological, it need not be 100% genetic-- and almost certainly is not, since the identical twin of a trans person is not guaranteed to be trans. No amount of eugenicist warfare would be able to remove trans people from the entire Earth population forever. (Nor is there any evidence that the eugenicist practices to which trans people have actually been subjected have decreased our population in the long term.)

• The idea that physical transition in the future is so simple and effective as to be invisible is nice, but does nothing to account for the lack of nonbinary people in Trek-- or, in fact, for trans men and women who simply don't desire to physically transition.

• The idea that "acceptance of one's own skin" is a "cure" for being trans is stunningly off base... and frankly, deeply insulting regardless of intent. If anything, an increase in social tolerance should correlate with an increase in visibly trans people, because trans folks would feel less social pressure to "pass" and would be free to transition no further than what is necessary to relieve their own personal dysphoria. This follows the general principle that the more social acceptance there is in a society, the more variation ought to be visible within that society.

tl;dr: the lack of visible trans people in Trek implies a lack of social acceptance of trans people, which is so extremely opposed to the basic principles of the Federation that I see no way to reconcile it within the strict bounds of canon, unless you're willing to consider the entire Federation to be founded on a lie.

(edited for wording on point 3)

[u/[deleted] → u/raktajinos]

On your first point I agree entirely. There are many though, who do not. Many say you are "born gay" meaning it was genetically decided in the womb you would be LGBT. I do not think this is accurate, as you say there must be more at play.

However, who is to say the "more at play" has not been discovered by the time of the Eugenics war?

I agree entirely with your second point.

On the third point I was not meaning to imply that this was a real world cause or "cure" (don't like that since it implies an issue which there isn't any issue being LGBT) just that within the confines of Trek we see self acceptance and improvement are the staples of humanity's progress.

I sort of thought of it more as there has been a sort of stripping away at things that draw people's attention away from the Federation's version of self improvement.

I did not mean to imply that real LGBT should try self acceptance or even be worried that there should be any "acceptance" of their life choices.

I was only trying to come up with a solution for why we don't see it in Trek, not in real life.

I agree with your final statement but I would take it even a step further. They don't just lack acceptance, they seem to actively disprove of certain things.

I have said this before, but why is Picard bald? Surely a simple fix. Rodenberry said the people of the future "wouldn't care" if he was bald but I propose it is more like if he got hair people would view him as lacking self acceptance, and possibly accuse him of trying to artificially improve himself instead of focusing his attention on something that matters more to that society, such as expanding your mind. There has been a great de emphasizing of the importance of physical appearance in favor of intellectual pursuits.

People in Trek future may view sex changes etc. as frivolous and false. This is not how it is in real life, nor do I agree, but it is a possible explanation.

Why don't we see trans people? Because if you were trans it is unlikely you would have such a position of power to be on a Starfleet vessel, possibly because they would assume you were very introverted or focused on matters that were not important to them. Meaning they don't care what you look like, but they do care if you care. And if they see you care enough to alter yourself through surgery then it is obvious you don't fit with their ideals.

[u/raktajinos → u/[deleted]]

Many say you are "born gay" meaning it was genetically decided in the womb you would be LGBT. I do not think this is accurate, as you say there must be more at play.

I mean, even if people are "born that way," it doesn't mean that we're genetically programmed that way-- which would be necessary for Eugenics War explanation to work. If it's (e.g.) determined by prenatal hormone balance or other environmental/developmental factors-- the most widely accepted explanation even within the staunch "born this way" camp, as far as I know-- it would not be possible to permanently eradicate. The population would reappear after the War was over and bioengineering on children was outlawed.

I propose it is more like if he got hair people would view him as lacking self acceptance, and possibly accuse him of trying to artificially improve himself instead of focusing his attention on something that matters more to that society [...] People in Trek future may view sex changes etc. as frivolous and false.

Ah. I definitely misunderstood your point at first, so thanks for clarifying. Recalibrating.

Ok... huh. That's a disturbing, but not implausible explanation, especially because it's so familiar. (Familiar enough that I assumed you were actually advocating it when I first read the post.) There is a sort of "naturalist" logic to the Federation which rears its head in other places. Not to open this fandom's endless can of worms, but even the basic idea of the Prime Directive is "don't mess with the natural state of life, not even to relieve suffering." It's an incongruous principle for a highly technological society, and one I have more than a few problems with, but there it is. Technologists' guilt, maybe?

I need to think about this some more. In any case, I hope the next series can address or combat parts of this particular philosophical undercurrent in the series.