USS Rainbow Trek

February 21, 2003 9:52 PM

USS Rainbow Trek - combining everyone's two favorite memes, homosexuality and Star Trek: Hi Folks, I'm Captain Leather Menace. I'd like to tell you a little about the USS Rainbow Trek. In reality we are a group of *Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals, Straight folks with open minds, Transgendered people, Intersexed people, and people who are Questioning their sexual preference or identity. We are also Star Trek fans who believe that Gene Roddenberry's dream of Inifinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations included "US" too. (safe for work)
posted by RylandDotNet (28 comments total)

Great, yet another embarrassing spectacle by gay people to add to the stereotype, proving to everyone that I must be joking when I tell them that most gay people aren't that different from straight people.
posted by Poagao at 10:06 PM on February 21, 2003

Poagao, homosexuals have been attracted to Star Trek for as long as it's been around. K/S slash, anyone? To me, Star Trek is as ingrained into gay culture as Barbra Streisand. Forgive the spectacle ... gays and Trekkies alike can be, and often are, flamboyant. Mixing the two is only natural, don't you think?

Besides, for the tamer Trekker and/or queer in you, there's always the USS Harvey Milk (and is that not-updated-in-five-years-page quaint or what??).

Hell, it used to be that the Web was powered primarily by porn (gay porn too!) and Star Trek. And Adam Curry.
posted by WolfDaddy at 10:13 PM on February 21, 2003

I'm mostly surprised that Stan Chin didn't post this. It has so many of his common themes.
posted by jonson at 11:08 PM on February 21, 2003

Poagao, homosexuals have been attracted to Star Trek for as long as it's been around.

speak for yourself. i never saw any value in it.
posted by patricking at 11:11 PM on February 21, 2003

Sigh. So modified: some homosexuals have been attracted yada yada yada. I'm sure there's some Trekkies that aren't attracted to homosexuals, too.

Though I would like, one day, to see a Star Trek convention next door to a drag show. Bet you couldn't tell the difference. Well, maybe.
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:48 PM on February 21, 2003

Whatever, Poagao. I find the "oh, some gay person has done something (insert "undesirable" quality here) and of course the straights will extrapolate that to the entirety of the gay population" thing to be irritating.

It's a bunch of wacky strek geeks who happen to be gay. And nerds. Let them have their nerdy, gay fun, please. In fact, I'd just as soon have everything gay people did stop needing to be For The Cause.

Bah. Mix me another martini, bartender. Sapphire, up. With an olive.
posted by kavasa at 11:51 PM on February 21, 2003

WD: the one ST con I attended pretty much WAS a drag show! Well, a fetish show anyway. ;-P
posted by mischief at 12:00 AM on February 22, 2003

Klingons and Dominatrix-es get their outfits from the same store, right? (And it ain't Kohl's)
posted by wendell at 12:55 AM on February 22, 2003

Yes, I find it irritating too. I guess I'm the only one who thought the Onion article about "Gay Pride March Sets Gay Rights Back Ten Years" to be spot on then.
posted by Poagao at 4:33 AM on February 22, 2003

Poagao: "most gay people aren't that different from straight people"

And Rylanddotnet proves it. There are both Gay Trek sims and straight Trek sims.

Now, I find it difficult that "most" of any group is like any other group. But I think I know what you mean.
posted by ?! at 6:33 AM on February 22, 2003

There's a certain irony in the fact that they list FLAMING (their caps) among the things they don't tolerate...
posted by oissubke at 7:26 AM on February 22, 2003

I've liked Star Trek since the Next Generation. (How exactly could a short bald man be hot? And his first officer? Sorry.)

Seriously, I'm gay, I have the DVD sets of Star Trek, but I don't dress up in a Starfleet uniform. Does that make me like a 4 on the Star Trek Kinsey Scale? (Maybe we should all walk around with our numbers on our shirts, that way we'd know.

Frankly, I'd be more concerned with the portrayal of "gay friendly television" as of late, than some badly made web page for Star Trek gays. Perfect example is Will & Grace, whose lesson is that all gays are, deep down, shallow and materialistic. And thats they stereotypes that need fighting, not that gays like Star Trek.
posted by benjh at 7:49 AM on February 22, 2003

Great, yet another embarrassing spectacle by gay people to add to the stereotype, proving to everyone that I must be joking when I tell them that most gay people aren't that different from straight people.

I'm sorry, what's the embarassing spectacle?

What about the "embarassing spectacle" of 30+ years of Trek, which has yet to even mention the existence of homosexuality (on screen)?

There are plenty of people that are into all kinds of things that others don't "get--Star Trek, drag shows, square dancing, porn, watching football on TV. Who cares?

I've never been able to understand why people care when others act differently from them. You know, gays are OK as long as they don't act "gay"--that whole thing.

That sounds like the definition of homophobia to me.
posted by notclosed at 8:03 AM on February 22, 2003

I think the fact that only 3 out of 14 claim to be human (the rest are alien or alien crossbreeds) says more about these individuals than their sexual orientation.
posted by moonbiter at 8:42 AM on February 22, 2003

Moonbiter: from what I've seen, that's more or less normal for Star Trek role players, more to do with being ostracized by mainstream society (whether for geekiness or gayness) than with being gay. It's easier to disassociate yourself with it if you're pretending to be non-human, I guess.
posted by RylandDotNet at 9:19 AM on February 22, 2003

How exactly could a short bald man be hot?

??? Get over it, being short and bald isn't exclusive to being hot (anymore than being tall and hairy is indicative of being hot...hello? Sasquatch?). Especially not if you're Patrick Stewart....mmmm...engage....
posted by biscotti at 11:30 AM on February 22, 2003

How exactly could a short bald man be hot?

His voice? His command of the English language? His ability to make even the most poorly written SNL skit a comedic masterpiece?

I'm with biscotti. Engage! Do the Picard Maneuver! NOW!
posted by WolfDaddy at 11:45 AM on February 22, 2003

Those are the best two comments ever.

"THERE. ARE. FOUR. LIGHTS!"

I assume you're talking about the Sexy Cakes SNL skit.
posted by Stan Chin at 11:56 AM on February 22, 2003

Stan,
Oh, yes.
posted by WolfDaddy at 2:05 PM on February 22, 2003

That remains, to this day, one of my favorite SNL episodes ever, along with the Christopher Walken Stalk Talk episode. Phil McCracken, Scottish Therapist & The Love Boat: TNG, terrible material made hilarious by Patrick Stewart.
posted by jonson at 2:11 PM on February 22, 2003

"Obviously, you're dealin' wi' a lot of anger, or as we Scots call it, angerrrrrrrrrrrrr."
posted by RylandDotNet at 2:23 PM on February 22, 2003

What about the "embarassing spectacle" of 30+ years of Trek, which has yet to even mention the existence of homosexuality (on screen)?

Guess you never watched Deep Space Nine, then? Sigh. No one did. Poor bastard child of Roddenberry, how I do love thee, even if no one at Paramount does. Never you mind, you'll turn into a beautiful swan one day.

Sorry, got sidetracked, but DS9 had tons of bisexuality, ambiguity, and just plain ol' slutty "I'll fuck anything" attitude. Most of it coming from Nana Visitor in tight rubber. Mmmmm ... Nana Visitor.
posted by WolfDaddy at 4:14 PM on February 22, 2003

WolfDaddy, that's not a healthy fixation you have there. Well, Nana Visitor as Kira Nerys is kinda manish. Mmm, Colm Meaney.

(Off-Topic Slightly: DS9 DVD sets start release this Tuesday. :-)
posted by benjh at 5:10 PM on February 22, 2003

Yeah, Wolf, there was bisexuality, etc. on DS9...but it was always in the mirror universe wasn't it? (One kiss doesn't make one bisexual.)

There still, as far as I can remember, no ST character who was gay or bi. There were many who showed their obvious heterosexuality, but none who had an obvious same-sex partner.

Cross species sex...that's where ST pushed the envelope.

benjh: Nana Visitor on DS9 was the intersection for all sexual identifications. I've heard her held in esteem by persons all over the spectrum.

My name is ?!. I'm a Trekist.
posted by ?! at 5:54 PM on February 22, 2003

but it was always in the mirror universe wasn't it

Yes, but at least it was there. DS9 got away with a lot of rulebreaking ... and I think that's why there's damn few people from that show, both in front of and behind the cameras, that are still involved with the, heh, enterprise of Star Trek.

Speaking of, I finally dropped Enterprise a couple of weeks ago when the allusion in the storyline was to AIDS and homophobia, you had people standing up and screaming 'ME! ME! I'm part of the minority" with all the sound and fury of something that might have been challenging to TV viewers fifteen years ago. Might. Bleah.
posted by WolfDaddy at 6:08 PM on February 22, 2003

One kiss doesn't make one bisexual.

No, but it was spelled out TNG that the Trill didn't worry about the sex of their partner since the symbiont lived so long and got transplanted into hosts of either sex over time.

And voila! I'm a nerd!
posted by RylandDotNet at 6:12 PM on February 22, 2003

Guess you never watched Deep Space Nine, then? Sigh. No one did. Poor bastard child of Roddenberry, how I do love thee, even if no one at Paramount does. Never you mind, you'll turn into a beautiful swan one day.

Actually I did watch DS9, religiously. It was an amazing show, particularly in seasons 5 and 6. But I'm sorry, that "lesbian kiss" (Dax and former lover in new hosts) and "bisexuality" (The Intendant being all horny as a signifier of her lack of morals) don't really cut it.

How about a little scene--in the mess hall, in Ten Forward, on the Promenade, in a shuttlepod--wherein someone asks a male ensign "how's your boyfriend?" Or maybe one of those female Admirals shows up with her "partner?" Now that would be revolutionary.

But I am happy to be a beautiful swan.
posted by notclosed at 8:24 AM on February 23, 2003

Wait a minute - gay Trekkies? But I heard there was this documentary where Shatner showed up and told all of them to "get a wife!"???

At least, that's what I think he said in that documentary.
posted by soyjoy at 8:31 AM on February 24, 2003