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Karim Diané on playing Star Trek’s first gay Klingon
(xtramagazine.com)
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this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2026
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Setting aside a tiny fraction of people who -- as Diane points out in the article -- make their living farming outrage, does anyone actually care about a gay character on Star Trek in the year 2026?
Also, I assume that many of the Klingons we've seen on Star Trek over the years were gay. I think he's just the first Klingon which was identified to the audience as gay.
I care. It’s pretty cool.
Same. And Diané absolutely rocks the character. A+ acting.
Agreed. An engaging character that, like Star Trek is oft wont to do, has an interesting arc that challenges the status quo and pushes for understanding.
According to Karim's recent AMA here, yes, a lot. I'm old but I have to imagine it's a lot harder being a queer kid in 2026 than it was a decade ago!
Also yes, the headline makes it clear this is Star Trek's first gay Klingon. Not the Klingon species' first gay.
Well, yes - plenty of people care about, and celebrate, representation.
"A Russian in a USS ship? This cannot be"
"A bald captain? This cannot be"
"A woman captain? This cannot be"
...
The same people that said Tilly didn't belong in ST because weight are the same that say people in STA are too good looking. Choose one side, people. Either "no non perfect people" or "no beautiful people", not both.
Wait, people think Tilly is fat??
Being overweight is in an entirely different category than the other attributes you mentioned because it's a choice, and more importantly because physical fitness is directly relevant to a soldier or sailor's ability to perform their duty. In fact, the show itself addresses this: there are scenes that show Tilly jogging around the ship so that she can get a "physical endurance commendation" and be more likely to get into the Command Training Program.
If she were a civilian character, sure: no judgement, no problem. But having an overweight military officer (especially if they hadn't acknowledged and addressed it the way they did) would be problematic in a legitimate, non-judgemental, suspension-of-disbelief-defying way.
(That said, I don't think Tilly was anywhere near big enough for fan complaints to actually be legitimate. I'm just saying that, in principle, that category of complaint could be legitimate for that type of character, in contrast to complaints about race/sex/hair that are never valid.)
But you'll agree that they can't be mad at once for Tilli not being fit and for the students in Academy for being too fit.
I like how he rocks the skirt, I'm glad SFA finally resolved the skirt thing by having absolute gender chaos.
Worf: I do not see why it is necessary to wear these... ridiculous uniforms.
Riker: Protocol.
Worf: They look like dresses.
Riker: That is an incredibly outmoded and sexist attitude! I'm surprised at you. Besides, you look good in a dress.
That's true in theory, but TNG still had a gender imbalance in who chooses to wear what under normal circumstances. And of course there's Berman's sexism with Troi's clothes. SFA has complete gender equality with regards to clothes.
(But we can still talk about how Darem and Genesis are very similar characters, but act very differently because of gender socialisation. Caleb and Tarima also have lots of gender socialisation going on)
Was there ever an explanation for why Troi was always dressed for jazzercize? She was a regular Starfleet officer, wasn't she?
All we know is that Jellico swooped in and saved the day!
I guess there is sort of an implication in Chain of Command that Troi chose to wear a "non-standard uniform" until Jellico ordered her to change. He says, "I prefer a certain... formality on the bridge. I'd appreciate if you wear a standard uniform." I've just done a TNG rewatch, and I'm pretty sure there is no other in-universe explanation given.
Doylist: Berman was a fatphobic piece of shit who told her to lose weight before she could wear the uniform.
Watsonian: She had a special exemption to wear those clothes because of her culture and job. We actually see the same with Dr Migleemo. It appears to be tradition that counsellors and therapists wear less formal clothing to set their patients at ease.
Don't forget that he was also a misogynist!
Her official role was ship’s councilor, so I’d guess it was to make people feel more at ease and less like they’re talking about their issues to an officer. But mostly - Rick Berman.
She's the ships counselor, who at any moment may need to have deeply personal and unofficial private conversations with anyone in need. Those discussions are officially informal. Thus she maintains a casual professional appearance.
It's not jazzersize, it's public lounge wear, she is at ease to help aid her clients ability to transition to an at ease state.
While doing official duty on the bridge it is appropriate for her to dress in uniform, but those duties tended to be momentary, not planned, so a wardrobe change would've been an odd choice.
That wasn't dressing for jazzercise; this was dressing for jazzercise!
This is one of several scenes that I bet the actors never expected to be released in 1080p....
Depends what platform you're on. Facebook? Omfg. They think the whole series is worth abandoning because of the "woke" agenda. Even though ST has been woke since 1960.
Personally, I don't give a fuck. Kind of like in a game. If a character turns out gay, then so be it. I have no emotion towards it. Overall Academy is a fun series. Just finished the Stars episode with The Doctor and Sam. Fantastic episode. Looking forward to cleaning up the first season
A lot of people didn't give a fuck about Uhura being on the bridge, but that is not a reason to NOT include her character on the bridge. Just because you don't consider yourself bigoted does not mean that gay characters should not be celebrated for breaking new ground.
I prefer every player-romanceable character in video games to be bi. If an NPC is monosexual, they should go date another NPC. If a character is ace, then there's no problem. But I don't like monosexual characters that date one player character but not the other.