I was just going on about "Rejoined" in another thread. It's pretty damn perfect. The best Trill episode, probably the best Jadzia episode, and also I think it's my favorite ROTW throughout all Trek.
It's too bad Berman or whoever was too obliviously homophobic to allow gay issues to be explored outside one-off episodes. It would be such a franchise legacy enhancer if they'd managed a proper gay character in this era of TV.
But, if one episode was all we could get, I don't see how it could have been done any better than "Rejoined."
I saw it the other day. It explores even more complexities of Trill Symbiant parasites, in particular regarding if they meet in new bodies, in a novel way. It's borderline soap opera but it's a love story and what saves it for me is the complex Trill society, explaining things they don't do and why.
Sisko has the best lines, even though I'm pretty sure the leaders of Trill won't accept Benjamin's pleas.
The acting ranges from "great" to "over the top".
And in the end, nobody breaks custom to face being banned from future hosts to slither into* because they found an old lover** and decided to break the golden rule, which was stated with as much succinctly as with as much clarity as to
why the not-quite-minuscule gift of host transferenceis allowed. To be fair, the stated reason is not an unreasonable one since how many of us would boast about having seven lifetimes and all the unique things encountered and experienced and to risk losing future opportunities as such, apart from Doctor Who (of course)?
* and thus be dead forevermore
** in a new host body or otherwise
Lenara Kahn was the correct and sensible person in this episode and I'd swear Dax is almost out of character, and it's nice to see that what one looks like isn't an issue regarding love (unlike Dr Crusher and what was nothing more than lust regarding her Trill episode). Nothing wrong with lust, but "Rejoined" is more intellectual due to its complexity thrown into a soap opera - it's an intriguing mixture of genres.)
Trill lives are not quite identical as humanity's transsexual issues since we're our own beings and not controlled by slug parasite thing stuck in our tender gooey innards, but as with most things with the Trill species it's more engaging because it's about the Trills. Still can't believe that Dax of all people would risk being barred from squishing into another host once Jadzia's body expires. At least, in the final scene, Dax doesn't scream "KAAAAAAAAAAAAHN" as she leaves the station. And now, I'm going to go watch season one of "Dollhouse". (To use an allegory to describe an allegory, it's a show where a person's body is a doll or puppet whose brain can be "programmed" with any personality (read: "other people") for covert operations like espionage or other things - so it's not a gastropod being shoved into a belly and not looking fat but reprogramming the brain as if it were a computer using Assembly Language (there's something else delightfully archaic to look up). Just how nonsensically cool yet confusing is that!)
There's really no such thing as "proper" when it comes to fictional characters made for entertainment, it's only if we enjoy or enjoy loathing the fictional characters.
Lastly, responding to one other thing you'd brought up, it's way too easy to use terms like "homophobic" around out of context, if nothing else. For one example and I'll save the better one (or two) for a few paragraphs down, if the makers were they wouldn't have gone this far with all the hoops and hurdles to try to make any statement. It's a hell of a lot more complex than that as well, it was a different time decades ago and they were trying to be trendsetters while being mindful of other audiences. To the point audiences now can't get enough of it, though it's not always for the same reasons though that doesn't matter as well.
And another thing, even my ex (same sex as me, BTW) had claimed there's more homophobia committed to LGBT people
by LGBT people... but that tangent also leads into yet another tangent, all of which go way too far outside of the scope of this to remain directly relevant. Until someone writes a Trek story about that but with some nuance and legitimacy and not as a one-sided throwaway...
Let's now turn to Berman himself for some of his side of the story:
http://www.treknews.net/2011/03/03/...n-gay-characters-in-trek-enterprise-and-more/
That's a lot more complex than I had fathomed as well. And depending on who are gay and are script writers, you may or may not see all aspects brought out - with or without seriousness or dignity applied. And may not be as popular with audiences.....
While it makes more sense just to reads the entire article as it covers a lot more, I'll quote a couple fun snippets:
Wilkins: Why were there no gay characters on TNG, DS9, Voyager or Enterprise? Was that your decision or the studio’s?
Berman: It was not the studio’s decision.
That alone successfully rebuttals in that he's not a homophobe if he's trying to do Roddenberry's belief as much justice as possible given ALL the circumstances present at the time in which they had...
I know that when Gene (Roddenberry) was alive he was very ambiguous about the idea of a gay character or gay characters on the show. He felt it was the right thing to do, but never quite had any idea of how he was going to do it As Michael Piller had said many times, the idea of seeing two men or two women in Ten-Forward holding hands was not really going to be an effective way of dealing with it.
It's possible to not have an answer despite already doing it. Remember that in "Encounter at Farpoint"? The whole episode is almost a gay allegory in of itself. Picard states the key line and there are many ways to perceive it.
Also, Troi and Will were former partners. If Roddenberry & co were unsure on how to deal with the issue per the article's full text, how would audiences react if Troi/Will were Ted/Bill or Jane/Jill instead? Or a new character in a later season who was revealed to have been with a former crewmate (who was ambiguous enough for it to work without doing the in-series retcons out of thin air, like Amy Farrah-Fowler had been (but so was Sheldon, ha!) but they're from another show)? So there you go, Troi/Will's past relationship wasn't brought up very often nor was it sledgehammered into every script. Their bedroom life just wasn't the crux to the show; TNG simply wasn't a soap opera in the regard of exploring anyone's sex lives to any detail and to be frank it would be laughable to even try, regardless of genders used. That's another reason why "Rejoined" is as close to "perfect" as anything could get in the time and place and leaving it open-ended without the sledgehammer tactics.
And I agree with him on another point - the following may not be his underlying reasoning but it's a possible reason: Two guys holding hands for the same reason that you're not seeing heterosexuals holding hands all the time on the ship should be enough on its own. And if reading the quote turned you off of it before my response to it, that might prove an interestingly different point. My response to it should have no bearing as that alludes to a different point altogether, and would most audiences really want to see every last sexual pairing on a ship holding hands all the time. Who is counting and are they so, if nothing else, desperate? And desperate for what, exactly, as there are many possibilities there as well.
But which is more straightforward? My first reaction was it was about Ben being the visitor to Jake. Thinking it's Melanie only suggests I think into things too much. 
