I was checking through USA Today and I ran across something where they talked about a controversial character on the new Stargate: Universe series. It turns out Ming-Na’s character is going to be lesbian.

I yawned as I continued to read the article.

Controversy in science fiction is different than controversy in other medium. I’m not sure what I was thinking when the article blared out controversy, but a homosexual character wasn’t in the offering. As one of the comments made on the board correctly made, you can look at many recent fantasy and science fiction shows with longevity and find lesbian characters. It’s not as bold a challenge as producers would like you to think. A gay male character would have been shocking, though not if the production had been European.

Last night I watched a few episodes of Blake’s 7; a show produced in the late 70s. One of the recurring characters, Servelan, had episodes where she seemed willing to go for men or women. There is Buffy where Willow was an out and proud lesbian. Some suggested that the relationship between Seven of Nine and Janeway on Voyager, at least from Seven’s perspective, was Sapphic. The mirror universe Kira from Deep Space Nine, while playing a little on the Servelan take all comers, clearly leaned lesbian. Babylon 5 strongly suggested there was a lesbian relationship between Talia Winters and Susan Ivonova.

It’s very tough to come up with a homosexual relationship within a science fiction show. It gets to the point of silliness, really, because characters, because of their looks or some random eye contact, will be declared gay. There’s never any strong hinting or overt announcement to settle the score.

Another thing that struck me as odd, both in the interview and the comments made by readers, had to do with Ming-Na saying how difficult it is for her to play a lesbian character. I understand the comment on one level, just like playing any other character that isn’t you would be tough, but like many of the people leaving comments I don’t understand how it would be harder to play this character as any other character. She even mentions that nothing in the initial script suggested the character would be lesbian and the producers decided much later this would be an aspect to the character.

As one person put it, other than having an attraction to the same sex, what would be the difference in a homosexual character? The only thing that might be different would be to avoid stereotypes associated with homosexual characters, which would mean to play the characters as any other character.

I don’t think science fiction is any worse than any other form of drama in presenting ‘different’ characters. In some cases they have to be considered above the curve, because with the new Stargate and Battlestar: Galactica, Hispanics have had prominent positions in the case, something you wouldn’t see on a drama on a major network. Science fiction, to some degree, has walked the blind color line test better than regular drama because they can put people in roles in disregard of ethic considerations. There’s still some room to grow, but it’s more diverse than you would see in a lot of mainstream fare.