HUGE Mr Sulu Spoiler

[Pauln6]

Sulu was not and is not necessarily gay. He can be attracted to both men, women, bald aliens, and, why not, even shaved Caitian hookers if that floats his boat. In this timeline, if he has decided to have a monogomous relationship with a man and father a child then that is what it is (a long-overdue attempt to be inclusive in mainstream Trek and an homage to the original actor).

People can debate whether Sulu prime was involved in a long term relationship with a man if they like. There is little evidence onscreen to contradict this. There is little evidence onscreen to support this either so fans new and old are free to interpret it however they like.

As my mate pointed out long ago, Rand is so obviously Sulu's fag hag, he must be gay. What more evidence do we need?

 

[Oso Blanco]

What interests me isn't based on what might or might not interest you.

I don't see the logic in this comment, but I'm sure there is a point somewhere ...

 

[timtonruben359]

I personally think that in Star Trek's timeline where inter-species dating is the norm, no one will define themselves as gay or straight you just love whomever you love.

 

[JoeZhang]

An utterly pointless choice to make Sulu gay, but it seems to make everyone happy ... I don't care one way or the other, why do you?

Oddly passive aggressive for someone who doesn't care...

 

[Timo]

The funny thing about this all is that TOS, the "sexist" show, never had enough material on personal relationships to establish any character's orientation or preferences to our satisfaction. Kirk got to have a series of women and girls, but was so omnivorous on one hand and professionally detached on the other that we learned basically nothing there, except perhaps that nothing should surprise us. And then Kirk's estranged son did anyway. The other characters were left on the level of gossip at best. For all we know, Uhura was married from the get-go, say.

Oddly passive aggressive for someone who doesn't care...

You mean "the lady doth protest too much"? What a disgusting thing to say.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Oso Blanco]

Oddly passive aggressive for someone who doesn't care...

Being a little paranoid, are we?

 

[BillJ]

It works a whole lot better if you accept that nothing about the Abramsverse connects with the Prime Universe, not even before Nero's incursion. There are simply too many differences. Chekov being closer in age to Kirk (or he's some wunderkind)/born the wrong year for one.

Completely different universe from start to finish. Problem solved.

Except nothing about Sulu being gay contradicts anything in the Prime universe.

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[Skywalker]

Should have happened at least 30 years ago (if not sooner), but I'm glad to finally see Star Trek join the modern world. And I love that they chose Sulu to honor George Takei.

 

[Timo]

Mmm. Saying that Star Trek should establish a character's sexual preference doesn't sound all that progressive or welcome to me... Although it does sound awfully modern.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Oso Blanco]

Mmm. Saying that Star Trek should establish a character's sexual preference doesn't sound all that progressive or welcome to me... Although it does sound awfully modern.

Exactly ... having a token gay character just for the sake of it makes me yawn.

 

[BillJ]

Mmm. Saying that Star Trek should establish a character's sexual preference doesn't sound all that progressive or welcome to me... Although it does sound awfully modern.

What's progressive about identifying every other character in the franchise as straight? I heard no cries of "sounds awfully modern" when O'Brien married Keiko or Sisko was married to a woman.

 

[angry apple panda]

Mmm. Saying that Star Trek should establish a character's sexual preference doesn't sound all that progressive or welcome to me... Although it does sound awfully modern.

Timo Saloniemi

Personally, I think establishing things like gender, race, and sexual orientation are important to Star Trek fans that fall into the categories that are established. Whoopi Goldberg often talks about how much seeing Uhura, a person of color, as a Starfleet officer in the sixties meant to her. It makes people feel good and empowered to see people like them as a part of the future. Star Trek has done this since the beginning. Establishing people as gay should be no different.

I grew up in the early '90s, and seeing a gay recurring character on TNG that was established to have gay relationships would have meant a lot to me. It doesn't have to be an intrusive, "I'M GAY!!" bit. Uhura didn't run around telling people she was black. Showing Sulu's husband is hardly what I would consider intrusive. We see heterosexual relationships all the time in Star Trek.

 

[BillJ]

Personally, I think establishing things like gender, race, and sexual orientation are important to Star Trek fans that fall into the categories that are established. Whoopi Goldberg often talks about how much seeing Uhura, a person of color, as a Starfleet officer in the sixties meant to her. It makes people feel good and empowered to see people like them as a part of the future. Star Trek has done this since the beginning. Establishing people as gay should be no different.

I grew up in the early '90s, and seeing a gay recurring character on TNG that was established to have gay relationships would have meant a lot to me. It doesn't have to be an intrusive, "I'M GAY!!" bit. Uhura didn't run around telling people she was black. Showing Sulu's husband is hardly what I would consider intrusive. We see heterosexual relationships all the time in Star Trek.

I'm straight, but a great post.

 

[Timo]

Ah, I'm probably as far from straight as I'm from every other of 'em usual pigeonholes, but yeah, a great post. I guess this is what I mean by "awfully modern" - it still is necessary to get individual lifestyles "cleared" through a sympathetic and well-received fictional character before they can enter the great canon of life.

When Trek does this, lifestyle by lifestyle (it's okay in Starfleet to be non-Caucasian, female, blind, old, young, foreign, and now gay) it's nowhere near the cutting edge, of course. But when it does the mirror image, by showing that the lifestyle issues still matter to our future heroes (say, Sisko's still being racist about racism), it gets all that much closer to the trailing edge...

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ghostface1701]

Exactly ... having a token gay character just for the sake of it makes me yawn.

This is a typical response I've seen from some online today, and it borders on trolling. It's no longer acceptable to be openly homophobic, so some people will belittle the importance of the news instead. Literally turning this breakthrough moment of representation into "Yawn", "So what?" "Who cares?".

This news matters to every LBGT person who's grown up with Star Trek, and never seen themselves represented the way other minorities have.

 

[Oso Blanco]

I heard no cries of "sounds awfully modern" when O'Brien married Keiko or Sisko was married to a woman.

That's because a heterosexual relationship never was awfully modern ... it's just the plain old fashioned way!

 

[BillJ]

That's because a heterosexual relationship never was awfully modern ... it's just the plain old fashioned way!

Since gay people have been here since the dawn of the human race, I'd say that it is just plain old fashioned as well.

 

[CorporalClegg]

That's because a heterosexual relationship never was awfully modern ... it's just the plain old fashioned way!

"Old fashioned" is relative.

People didn't just organize one day in 2006 and say, "Let's all be gay."

 

[Pauln6]

Portraying women in same sex relationships has been a lot more mainstream than men but quite a few modern shows now have now had gay or bisexual male characters (True Blood, BSG, Killjoys, Expanse, Spartacus, Gotham, Arrow, and Warehouse 13 to name a few) and Star Trek would start to look very behind the times if they continued to be absent.

You watch something like 300 or Troy where they go out of their way with a very American 'Don't ask, don't tell,' approach to homosexual relationships and it seems ludicrous. The Spartans are shown in 300 mocking the Greeks as 'boy lovers' when in fact 'loving' young men was also part of Spartan culture. God forbid that a bloodthirsty heterosexual male audience might balk if they found themselves rooting for a bunch of pumped, oiled, half-naked boy lovers, so the writers threw in a historically inaccurate line out of paranoia. Bonkers.

 

[angry apple panda]

People didn't just organize one day in 2006 and say, "Let's all be gay."

I mean I did, but the statement was ironic.