Any time a gay character even exists on screen (most recently Willow, The Last of Us and Strange World), a certain section of the population will froth at the mouth about it and use words like agenda and woke.
A lot of people lost their minds over Seven and Raffi holding hands at the end of season 1.
I agree. There will always be people in the conservative/religious spectrum that will seethe.
However, I also see legit criticism. In the case of Seven and Raffi the inclusion of that scene did not add anything to the show, their character development, etc...It was the same thing with the last scene in The Legend of Korra with the titular character and Asami. It was just there to titillate. They just threw that in there to excite social media and hopefully have people remember a failing show.
None of whatever they were hinting between Raffi and Seven was followed up in S2 of STP. Maybe they were more like buddy cops in that season but that's about it. Then again, I'll admit I fastforwarded through a lot of the soap opera dialog of that show so maybe I missed something but I certainly didn't see them acting as if they were in a romantic/loving relationship. Maybe a deep friendship. Stamets and Culber they ain't.
In contrast, that last ep of The Last Of Us was superb. Excellent writing, acting, etc...As far as I'm concerned it could be a standalone mini movie about 2 gay guys in a post-apocalyptic world and it still works disconnected from anything to do with the overall TLOU storyline. Perhaps the only criticism of that ep was putting it as a third ep when perhaps you want more development of the main characters and the main story. Maybe as ep #4 or #5. Regardless, it was an excellent ep.
Personally, I tend to think scifi does a poor job with relationships overall, regardless of whether straight or queer, to the point that I don't want to see it. Culber and Stamets was the first relationship that Trek got right afaic.