How to Sim a Gay Character
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Despite Star Trek, through its many incarnations, being a television and movie franchise that has actively dealt with tough and controversial issues in today’s society, homosexual and bisexual characters had been all but absent from the Star Trek Universe. The few characters that have exhibited alternative sexualities have often been negative characters such as “evil” alternate universe versions of main characters.
Within the United Federation of Planets group, however, positive gay and bisexual characters have been and continue to be portrayed and further exploration of this is always welcome. This brings up the question: “How do I write a gay character in the Star Trek Universe?” And while not providing a set list of guidelines per se, I hope this helps kick-start the development of such characters.
One important thing to remember when SIMming any relationship, regardless of who is involved, is to keep the SIM suitable for the audience. While a lot of members of the group are over 18 there is no rule against younger people joining and as such SIMs shouldn’t include graphic depictions of sex. A good rule of thumb is if you think it is too risqué, then don’t post it or have your Captain approve it.
Other than that there are no real rules on how to SIM a homosexual or bisexual character. However, there are several things to keep in mind when you decide to go down this road.
Firstly, the character is a person not a sexual label. In other words, their sexual preference is a facet of the character but it shouldn’t dominate him/her. Keep in mind that most people in the SIM universe are Starfleet officers, this means they won’t always be thinking about how attracted to crewman X or ensign Y. Try to exercise some subtlety, take your cue from more experienced officers and how they SIM their own sexuality, regardless of what that may be.
Stereotypes exist for a number of reasons. Some are close to the truth, others are woefully negative. A good writer doesn’t rely on stereotypes when developing their characters, it makes for one-dimensional people who are hard to identify with and makes those reading about the character lose interest very quickly. It is always more interesting to read about a character who challenges stereotypes instead of living up to them.
Another important thing to remember is that your character can be gay or bisexual without necessarily being in a relationship. Choosing to SIM a character with an alternative sexuality doesn’t mean the choice to start a long, meaningful same sex relationship. Perhaps you could write a flashback to a past relationship, mention an attraction to another character or even just have a short fling.
While it would be negative stereotyping for such characters to always sleep around, Star Trek is full of short flings with random aliens or other crewmembers. In fact, if you think about it, casual flings have been a large part of the development of almost all the characters we have seen on screen. Don’t be scared to do this with your character, in the 24th century the exact same rules apply to people of all sexualities.
If a long-term relationship is the route you wish to explore then you are faced with another decision: will it be with another playing character or with an NPC. Both have their positives and negatives: with a playing character you have the fun of interacting with another writer while the relationship progresses and both sides being written by different people makes the relationship more unpredictable but you do have to find someone to do that with and from my experience your SIM rates need to be fairly similar in order to prevent one person waiting around a lot. With an NPC, you can control everything that happens in the relationship, you can explore exactly what you want to do but often times it can become less fun to write.
Something else to think about is whether your character is already aware of their sexuality or whether they will become aware of it. While most people become aware of their sexuality during their teenage years, there are still those who do not realise their true sexual identity until later in life. SIMming a character’s awakening feelings for members or a specific member of the same gender could be interesting to explore.
If you want to establish a new character has been in a long-term existing relationship then perhaps you would like to have the happy couple procreate. The conception of children from same-sex parents is something that isn’t even science fiction in the 21st century, it was recently proven to be viable in mice; in the 24th century is would seem to be much easier than creating children from two different species. There is also always the option of adoption without any of the constraints facing same-sex couples in today’s society.
One major factor that will determine how your character deals with their own sexuality is their race.
For example, perhaps Vulcans would see homosexuality as illogical due the inability to naturally procreate from such a union and attempt to suppress this part of their personalities. On the other hand, Humans have evolved into a utopian society where bigotry and prejudice are a thing of the past, so their sexuality would be completely accepted. In ancient Greece, it is believed that encouraging same-sex relationships between soldiers would make them more loyal to each other; perhaps a similar practise is acceptable among some of the more war-like races like Klingons.
Several races, including Vulcans and Betazoids practise bonding of children as future mates. What would happen if such bondings were broken due to the alternative sexuality of your character? What are the social consequences for individuals who break with tradition for this reason?
At face value, several species appear to be inherently bisexual. Andorian marriages are said to involve four members, Bolians too have spouses of both genders; joined Trills can have the memories and feelings of both males and females. For such races, bisexuality would appear to be not only accepted but mainstream. In fact, to SIM such a character and not include even the mention of such aspects of their culture would appear to go against what has been shown or at least suggested on the television shows.
Once you choose to SIM a homosexual or bisexual character in the Star Trek universe, there are a number of possibilities to explore. Hopefully, this has given you some ideas about things you’d like to explore, and that you have fun writing and your shipmates have fun reading the SIMs involving that character.
Written by: Akino Janaar