Sulu, “Star Trek” and queer sci-fi: LGBT diversity has been there all along—now it’s gone mainstream; Salon, 7/12/16

Scott Eric Kaufman, Salon; Sulu, “Star Trek” and queer sci-fi: LGBT diversity has been there all along—now it’s gone mainstream:

"Which is, of course, the most significant issue — how to represent historically underrepresented communities, especially when doing so within the confines of a franchise that, however progressive it was when originally produced, was still originally produced in America during the 1960s. Should members of the LGBTQ community be treated as deviations from the “norm” who require acceptance, or simply as people whose sexuality or gender identification is a fundamental, if incidental, fact of who they are?

Roberts clearly argues that it should be the latter, whereas Takei believes that the character of Sulu will be fundamentally altered — an “unfortunate” revision of his original conception — if he happens to homosexual in the new film. In this respect, Takei is out of step with how science fiction has evolved since Roddenberry first envisioned life aboard the Starship Enterprise, at least inasmuch as straightness is no longer considered the default among characters whose sexuality isn’t a central feature of the narrative."