Why was Stamets chosen to be gay?

[Takeru]

Don't get me wrong, I love that we have a gay main character, I like both him and Culber and their relationship but I fear it won't last.

We all know the spore drive won't last, it's not used in any other Star Trek media taking place later, we also know it's affecting Stamets, right now he appears to be a bit high and can remember time loops but I think it's obvious where the story is going. Something will happen to Stamets, something so bad that the spore drive will be mothballed because starfleet won't dare to use another officer as navigator ever again.

So yeah, I think Stamets will be gone by the end of the season and that makes me sad, we got our first openly gay main character will be gone after just a few episodes. Not that it wouldn't also hurt to lose him if he was straight, but that he's gay makes it extra bad.
Under those circumstances wouldn't it have been better to either make Stamets straight or make someone else the navigator?

 

[Kemaiku]

Due to the all too prevelant still trope;

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BuryYourGays

Although LGBTQ make up a tiny fraction of Tv characters, they account for nearly 10% of onscreen deaths. If a couple is allowed to be happy for any length of time, you know it means they're about to kill one of them off tragically.

Although this begs the question of who would have been a better choice for it to happen. Having an established pair of characters that are important worked best for Discovery. Making Tilly gay would have fallen into the college experimention trope, Saru would have been an alien ambiguity easily brushed off for not being human sexuality, Lorca among others would have lead to accusations of demonising it Mirror Universe style (evil characters are best avoided), and no one else gets attention enough to warrent it.

Making the relationship part of Burnhams arc would have been much more controversial, as well as if Tyler had instead been a female character instead, turning out to be a spy like people are speculating, brings us back to the evil trope. And maybe even combining the evil and tragic tropes in one.

Stamets dying is still a problem with gay characters being killed off, but at the same time we have a character that despite a grumpy start turned out to be a good man and we're gotten a rare healthy LGBTQ relationship on TV out of it.

 

[MarsWeeps]

Don't get me wrong,

Nothing good ever comes from posts that start out with those words.

 

[Captain pl1ngpl0ng]

If we lose him, and it hurts...
Then the writers, casting directors and Anthony Rapp did a great job!

 

[The Wormhole]

I don't see the issue. He's a character on the show who is subjected to the same dramatic plot devices as the other characters and he happens to be gay too. Personally, I think it would be worse if they kept him safe from harm just so nothing will happen to the gay character, who they can trot out as a token of "diversity."

Besides, even if Stamets does get written off, Culber will presumably still be around, so it's not like the show is trying to eradicated its gays or anything. Let's just relax and see how the story unfolds.

 

[Takeru]

Nothing good ever comes from posts that start out with those words.

Instead of making a silly comment you could actually contribute, you know?
What I have a problem with is the possible loss of a gay character. I question the choice of introducing a gay character and immediately marking him for death.

If I'm wrong that's great but at the moment I don't see how they can have the spore drive be a failure (which has to happen) and still keep Stamets around

 

[Captain of the USS Averof]

You can make a similar case about Ash Tyler. Why was the character portrayed by Shazad Latif, an actor of Pakistani descent chosen to be the

Spoiler

Klingon spy?

(allegedly)

 

[{ Emilia }]

I don't think he'll die.

 

[Takeru]

I don't see the issue. He's a character on the show who is subjected to the same dramatic plot devices as the other characters and he happens to be gay too.

Underepresenteted minorities need more protection to achieve anything resembling fair treatment. The one and only gay main character in the history of Star Trek cannot be killed off in the first season without it looking bad.

I don't think he'll die.

I hope you're right.

 

[MarsWeeps]

What I have a problem with is the possible loss of a gay character. I question the choice of introducing a gay character and immediately marking him for death.

When was he immediately marked for death? Did I miss an episode? We've already seen crew members killed, why should he get a free pass? I think he'll last until the end of the series.

 

[The Wormhole]

Underepresenteted minorities need more protection to achieve anything resembling fair treatment. The one and only gay main character in the history of Star Trek cannot be killed off in the first season without it looking bad.

Personally, I don't think he will be killed off anyway, so all this is more or less worrying over nothing. But keeping the token gay guy around for no reason other than having a gay guy on the show seems more offensive to me than doing with a character what the storyline naturally develops into, regardless if he's gay or straight.

Or, you know, we could always complain the second Trek series with a black lead has her sentenced to prison at the end of the pilot.

 

[Takeru]

When was he immediately marked for death? Did I miss an episode? We've already seen crew members killed, why should he get a free pass? I think he'll last until the end of the series.

He was marked for death (or at least a not so nice fate) the moment he became the crucial element of the spore drive, a technology we know won't be around long.
We already see effects on him, so it clearly wasn't a harmless procedure that lets him navigate the ship and nothing else and I fear those effects will escalate.

 

[GeekUSACarl]

To me, I don't think him being gay matters or doesn't matter. He is a guy, he is gay, he fits into the story this way or that way.

That being said, I think it's plausible, either consciously or subconsciously that is Stamets were to bite it, which he may, that they thought there would be a greater impact for the gay guy to bite it.

For me personally, whether or not i'm attached to a character dying, have to be attached to how he/she feels about his/her family, a boyfriend, a child, incredibly close friends something. If Stamets were to die i'd prefer to have seen much more of him and his husband / boyfriend or whatever they are. Cause to be frank, anyone dying right now I may find exciting depending on it's execution but I wouldn't feel the loss, at all, gay or straight.

But I can see the writers going there.

 

[dahj]

I think you're all burying Stamets a bit prematurely...

 

[Mechanoid1]

To me, I don't think him being gay matters or doesn't matter. He is a guy, he is gay, he fits into the story this way or that way.

I AGREE, that's why I believe he will be straight in the non mirrored universe season 2 and onward.

 

[GeekUSACarl]

I AGREE, that's why I believe he will be straight in the non mirrored universe season 2 and onward.

That's possible but seriously, so lame. I mean, just utterly lame storytelling.

 

[Mechanoid1]

I mean, just utterly lame storytelling.

Par for the course.

 

[GeekUSACarl]

I think you're all burying Stamets a bit prematurely...

You're probably right, i'm certainly not trying to.

I've seen so much tv and episodic tv and tv drama, my brain just has a habit of predicting what I think writers will do.

Though i've very much enjoyed the show I wouldn't accuse these writers of having an imagination for storytelling ( not to be confused with imagination for sci-fi elements )

It just seems like they are 1.) setting it up that he dies, and it would be a simple, easy shot, the kind of thing I can see lazy writers doing. "yeah lets kill the gay guy, that'll get some jaws dropped"

or 2.) letting us think that's what they are gonna do, and rope-a-dope us and they kill off, say, the doctor ( kinda the same thing ) or don't kill either in a simple game of "FOOL YOUUUU"

Either way i see the stamets thing as some sort of a setup.

 

[Nightowl1701]

I think they will kill a Stamets off tonight - the uptight, no-nonsense jerk we first met in episode three. But the other Stamets - the zonked-out hippie surfer type - will be waiting to rejoin Discovery and her crew where it's going next in the season's second half...

 

[F. King Daniel]

I don't think he'll die. If anything, he'll ascend and become Gay Fungi Jesus.