My favorite running gag in Star Trek is whenever they tried to do a gay episode, but had to make the characters as trans as possible to get it on network television.
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I do believe Soren’s pronouns were she/her, which was the point of the episode. She was an ANBAB trans woman who was forced to undergo conversion therapy. The episode did NOT end well for her, and the tone of the episode made that clear.
Yes, but in the context of 1992 it was explicitly intended to be about *gay* rights and conversion therapy.
It’s been thoroughly documented that Soren identifying as female was thought of as a whacky sci-fi metaphor for same-sex attraction. They weren’t considering a trans audience at that time.
In fact, the episode was widely criticized by gay fans for cowardly implying a pro-gay message through a relationship that was ultimately between a man and a character using she/her pronouns who was played by a woman.
Many felt Soren should’ve been played by a man, or at least stuck to they/them.
The episode works better now, because the shift away from the rampant homophobia of the 80s and 90s towards the transphobia of today unintentionally made Soren easier to read as a transhet woman than as a gay man.
Or as a critic at the time put it, “a straight woman from the Planet of the Lesbians”
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"Curzon, my beloved friend!"
"It's Jadzia now."
"Jadzia, my beloved friend!"
It’s been thoroughly documented that Soren identifying as female was thought of as a whacky sci-fi metaphor for same-sex attraction. They weren’t considering a trans audience at that time.
Many felt Soren should’ve been played by a man, or at least stuck to they/them.
Or as a critic at the time put it, “a straight woman from the Planet of the Lesbians”