Quinto is out of the closet
- Thread starter Kamdan
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In a interview with Ron Moore, when ask point blank about gays in trek, he said "There is no answer for it other than people in charge don’t want gay characters in Star Trek, period."
It's Gene Roddenberry's philosophy based upon observations of his works over the course of years. Not just with Star Trek, but other Roddenberry productions, where was there a positive depict of a gay main character? Part of how homophobia manifest itself is through both antipathy and aversion.
You know that one of the early novels was written by Gene Roddenberry, right?
And the 1990's? Where nearly half of TNG, all of DS9 and the majority of Voyager was produced? Gay characters were increasingly incorporated into TV series in that decade. Source
When it comes to ST: Enterprise, lack of a gay character likely resulted in lower rating in the late teens through early thirties demographic. The absence was obvious, noted and commented upon.
In Star Trek, whenever we have seen a marriage, it's always been two heterosexuals (as shown) and never a clearly gay marriage. In the last movie there were two marriages (the Kirk's, and the Sarek's) and two sexual hook-ups (Spock/Uhura, and Kirk/Gaila). The movie prominently featured no gay relationships.
As others have said, it's a shame that something like this is worthy of being "news"...but at least we're finally past the era of gay admission = career ruination.
Hey now, that seems a bit unfair. Was there a poll taken that I missed? Is there any actual statistic for that anywhere?
If you're thinking of the TMP novelization, my understanding is that although Roddenberry's name is on the cover, it was actually ghostwritten by Alan Dean Foster. That could just be an unfounded rumour, though.
Interestingly, though, there's a footnote in the TMP novelization which the character of Kirk addresses rumours about himself and Spock - a reference to slash fiction. In it, Kirk claims that while he has no objection to various forms of love, he always "found [his] best gratification in that creature, 'woman'". (I'm quoting from memory there, so the wording may not be exact.) It certainly implies that Kirk has had sex with at least one man in his life.
As for Quinto, I'm glad to see him coming out. I don't recall when I first heard it said that he was gay, but this wasn't a big surprise to me.
It as the Star Wars novel what was ghost-written by Foster. The TMP novel doesn't "sound" like his writing style.
He all but said it in an interview back before the movie came out.
Well, good for him!That's the best response I can think of.
Indeed.
Gene wrote the novelization all by himself. (ADF wrote the story of the film.)
And it shows.
Yup, you're both right - my bad, I had a memory cramp there. I was misremembering Foster's role in the writing of the film story.
Must be a slow news day--if you can consider this newsworthy...
He is pretty much the closest to A list actor that has ever come out. It is big news. Most gays in hollywood are even today to scared to come out and are forced by their handlers to enter fake relationships (beard) so the public thinks they are straight. Quinto has been fighting to be allowed to come out for at least a year but his publicists were threatening to throw the book at him.
Watch any old movie where a guy finds out he kissed another man. The freaked out reaction is phobic. For that matter look at any gay panic defense also a great example of a phobic reaction.
I'm familiar with Foster's style, and I find the style of TMP to be very different. In fact, I'd say that it is very similar to the style used in the outlines for Trek that were written by Roddenberry. So I will come straight and say that I am absolutely convinced that Foster did not ghost write the TMP novel. If I'm wrong, I'll post a pic of myself naked.
It really is. A list and B list actors basically never come out. The very few who have were forced out by scandal. Neither Ellen or NPH were as highly ranked as Quinto when they came out. This is huge news and every studio will be watching what happens next very closely.
hmm, lets see what happens when you change just two words in that sentence;
now, I don't know about you, but that seems a little bit... prejudiced?
so maybe think a bit more before you start accusing people of being homophobes, ok?
and gosh, I really hope you're a troll...
Good for him coming out...
We're now in the 21st century and sexual orientation should not matter one bit.
We're now in the 21st century and sexual orientation should not matter one bit.
Well done for him coming out, however I don't understand why someone's sexuality should matter. I wish more people were upfront but given today's society I can see why people don't. One day this won't even be news and no one will care whether you are gay,lesbian,bi etc
I vaguely remember an interview with Takei back around the time he publicly came out where he said that as far as he was concerned, Sulu is meant to be straight, and that's how he always portrayed him.
Wonderful, now every time I say "Spock is gay" I'll get an infraction. 
I have no doubt that Sulu was meant to be straight. He was a character that Gene created for a 1960s TV show. Everone on the Enterprise was portrayed as straight. Plus, if George had played the character as gay, he would have been typecast and found it extremely hard to get work on other projects back then.
It would be a retcon to say that Sulu was gay, but I don't see anything that would exclude the possibility. He never had a female love interest in the series or movies, and the only time I can remember him "lusting" for a woman was in the mirror universe, which may have just been a power play for that version of the character anyway.
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