A lesbian Klingon couple is causing a stir in Star Trek Online.
In the latest episode of Star Trek Online, the House of Pegh, B’Ler, a minor character and a Klingon technician, appears. She has a partner. This is touched on in the episode without being a major focus.
And this seems to be becoming a problem for some, or maybe not, or something entirely different. No one openly identifies as homophobic, but the old Seinfeld quote applies: “Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but …” There are various perspectives. You can read something like this in the forums for Star Trek Online over more than 40 pages:
- This is just an attempt to occupy a topic that plays no role in the story. It’s only used as “cheap” controversy.
- It’s perfectly normal, they’re just Klingon women who happen to be homosexual. Why not? What’s the problem?
- They have a typical lesbian cliché role distribution, one is rather masculine, the other rather feminine. However, female Klingons, like the males, are primarily warriors.
- Whether lesbian women really exist in Klingon culture is lore-technically questionable, and that they behave like stereotypes from our time is even more so. In the future, we should focus on lesbians of races that resemble human culture.
- Every Star Trek fan should be able to handle this; we are a tolerant franchise. The 117th episode of The Next Generation was exactly about that.
- Nice also the dialogue: “Lesbian Klingons are totally unrealistic” – “Oh, and Romulan women in full-day steel bikinis are not?”
- This is the future, does this stuff still even matter?
It all then goes into the meta-level: Some see latent homophobia in others. Those others are annoyed to be placed in such a box.
And the third party gets upset that this is even being discussed. Because as long as it is being discussed, it’s a sign that there is still some sort of problem with it and that it has not become normal.
Given the charged atmosphere in the USA on this topic, one can assume that the story will create further waves, likely far beyond the rather cozy Star Trek Online and the MMO sector. As we know the US gaming press, Polygon is likely preparing a multi-page special on this topic right now. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…
