Well, the messages I got were:
1. People whose sexuality and gender expression are different from the norm have the same feelings and the same rights as anyone else.
2. Conversion therapy, when done against the subject's will, is an evil and despicable violation of their rights.
So... did I get the wrong message?
Of course not.
But I'm nonetheless a little bitter over the episode (admittedly, like Trek in general up to the launch of
Discovery) not being more explicit in its support of actual human gay and noncis people, even to the point of acknowledging their existence. One incident that made me bitter happened on this very board, back when I first joined in 2003.
I got involved in an argument, in General Trek Discussion, of how our futuristic Federation would treat gay people, specifically gay humans. It will not surprise you to know that I started with the assumption that the Federation, and Earth, would treat them no differently than any other citizens. And I ran into a poster who said it was irrelevant, because by that time homosexuality would have been cured. Well, I and several other posters argued that of course that future society would see no need for a cure. No? said the pro-cure poster.
Then where are the gay people?
Where indeed? In my time in fandom in the 90s-early 2000s, that wasn't the only time I ran into that argument. And you know, I would have loved to have a counter. But I didn't, because there were no gay people, aliens and evil Mirror counterparts aside.
The complete absence of gay people -- even in the background, even in references in dialogue -- made the Federation look like a place that didn't welcome gay people, at least not human beings. And "The Outcast," like "Rejoined," did not change that.
