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TV: Star Trek Discovery to Get Trans/NB Characters/Actors

Sta Trek Discovery

Star Trek is going where the 54-year-old sci-fi TV franchise has never gone before by introducing its first-ever transgender and non-binary characters. The characters will be played by actors who are trans and non-binary in real life. In its upcoming season of Star Trek: Discovery, the series’ 2018 CBS spin-off, trans actor Ian Alexander will play Gray, a Trill, which are aliens who serve as hosts for symbiotic creatures that provides unique personality traits and skills. Non-binary actor Blu del Barrio will make their debut by playing the non-binary character Adira, an intelligent and introverted teenage amnesiac whose coming-out story … Read more

SPOILER: Picard Outs Iconic Character in Season Finale

Picard

The Star Trek: Picard season finale has confirmed a same-sex romance for an iconic character, and fans are thrilled. The show’s season finale dropped the quiet reveal, showing Jeri Ryan’s returning character Seven of Nine – first introduced back in Star Trek: Voyager – holding hands with Raffi, played by Michelle Hurd. Fans were naturally loving the tacit reveal, with one fan asking: “Did… did they? Are we officially getting Seven apart [sic] of the fictional character rainbow flag family?” Another wrote: “Y’all? I’ma say it. When it comes to representation, Jeri Ryan and Star Trek: Picard did what no … Read more

Star Trek star Anthony Rapp Gets engaged to his boyfriend… again

Anthony Rapp Engaged

Fans of Star Trek actor Anthony Rapp will remember that he got engaged last November, but the star has since gotten engaged for the second time. No, he and his fiancé didn’t split – they just decided to get engaged again. Rapp revealed last November that he had proposed to his boyfriend Ken Ithiphol in Ontario, Canada, and said in an Instagram post that he was “thrilled” and “so happy” when he said “yes”. But Ithiphol apparently wanted his chance to pop the question too. So, this week, he got down on one knee and proposed to his fiancé just … Read more

“Star Trek” Actor Anthony Rapp Announces Engagement

Anthony Rapp

Star Trek: Discovery actor Anthony Rapp announced his engagement to boyfriend Ken Ithiphol on Sunday night. Said Rapp on social media: “So something happened tonight. I asked @teerakeni if he would marry me and he said yes. I am so very happy and I’m so very thrilled to share this news.” According to People, “The actor has been dating Ithiphol, a leadership coach, social researcher and advocate, since January 2016.” Full Story at Towleroad 

SCIENCE: Building a Planetary “Life Scanner”

Star Trek Beyond

When the crewmembers of the starship Enterprise pull into orbit around a new planet, one of the first things they do is scan for life-forms. Here in the real world, researchers have long been trying to figure out how to unambiguously detect signs of life on distant exoplanets. They are now one step closer to this goal, thanks to a new remote-sensing technique that relies on a quirk of biochemistry causing light to spiral in a particular direction and produce a fairly unmistakable signal. The method, described in a recent paper published in the journal Astrobiology, could be used aboard … Read more

Autostraddle Celebrates the Women of Discovery

Discovery

When Star Trek: Discovery launched on CBS All Access in 2017, response was decidedly mixed: it led to a record subscription day for the brand-new streaming network, but many die-hard Trekkies were anti-Discovery from the jump, one taking the time to produce a 47-video series on the inconsistencies presented within Discovery, which takes place earlier on the Prime Timeline than Enterprise, The Original Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine and Voyager. The Klingons look different! Spock never said he had a sister! The technology is WAY beyond what makes sense for the time! Spores? What? But while there was … Read more

Star Trek: Gay Couple Not Over, Rapp Says

The gay relationship in Star Trek: Discovery hasn’t reached the end of its story, according to actor Anthony Rapp. The star, who plays Lieutenant Paul Stamets, told attendees of Los Angeles TV festival Paleyfest on Sunday (March 24) that when it came to his character’s relationship with Wilson Cruz’s Dr Hugh Culber, “we’re still in the midst of it.” “Things are continuing to evolve. We’re grateful we’re given something authentic and complicated [by the writers],” he said, according to Deadline. Full Story: Josh Jackman, Pink News

The Queer History of Star Trek

Queer Star Trek

“When Star Trek Discovery first aired 2017, it also brought with it’s first ever explicitly gay main characters, says trans writer and YouTuber Jessie Gender (nee Earl), “It was a huge deal for the 50 year-old franchise, especially considering that the Trek has always been about celebrating diversity.” But, Gender continues, “Did you know that this wasn’t the first time Trek tried to tackle queer issues? And no, I’m not talking about the blink and you’ll miss it nod to Sulu being gay in Star Trek Beyond. Even though it was adorable. No, a lot of Trek’s history with queer issues began decades earlier, both … Read more

TV: Star Trek Discovery Spoiler

Don’t read this if you haven’t watched the second season of Star Trek: Discovery yet. The latest episode of Star Trek: Discovery has seen the return of a key gay character Hugh Culber. The sci-fi series, currently airing on CBS all Access and Netflix, included a first for the franchise – by featuring two gay officers who are in a relationship. But Culber, a medical officer on the Discovery played by Wilson Cruz, was killed off in the first season. He was the partner of science officer Paul Stamets, played by actor Anthony Rapp. Culber’s comeback occurs in the episode … Read more