TV Discussion Homosexuality in Star Wars Television

Why not? There's obviously straight characters, and if kids see gay characters they'll know it's fine and end up being open and accepting in the future.

 

Somehow I think that's his point.

 

What about explicitly straight characters? That's ok?

The only thing that is not appropriate for a kid's show is any type of explicit sexual activity-which isn't happening if the characters are gay or straight.

 

No ones saying it'll be explict. And they had a gay couple in Good Luck Charlie. A kids show on Disney. It doesn't even have to be that obvious; just subtle and enough to pick up on. Besides, shows put subtext between characters all the time. It doesn't matter if it's straight or gay. It's good for diversity and shows that you know, gays actually exist. Where did you get the idea that it was supposed to be explict?

 

Not having something present in a work doesn't mean denial it it exists.

 

Lies. You must have an exact equal representation of real world groups because fiction must be exactly like what exists in the real world.

 

I wonder if it would make the fanfic policy on this board change.

 

Not really, I don't see the point of having any real romantic relationships in this show. If I want something about relationships I'll go watch How I met your Mother or something. I want Star Wars not Soap Operas.

Well then exactly 1.7% of the characters must be gay.

If it isn't explicit I don't see a point in asking this question.

 

Well there's been a grand total of 3 in the entire history of the franchise. A companion in KOTOR and two random Mandos in a crappy Traviss book.

JFC people, no ones asking for much here.

 

I would like to see friendship and teamwork in SW not romance or not romance called romance. There is more than one kind of valid relationship.

 

Star Wars has always had some form of romance though. Like Han and Leia for example. I don't think they would ever have romance stop happening.

And Kablob in the new SWTOR online game they have a few gay more characters; male and female. You just need the Hutt Cartel DLC.

TheOneX_Eleazar If by explict you meant over the top stuff. Kissing's fine, besides kids will see it sooner or later. It's better that they can understand what gay means when they are younger so they don't grow up scared when there older. It's a normal thing.

 

No ones disputing that, and don't act like its not a Star Wars thing. Uh, Han and Leia?

 

Not romance.

 

What on earth about Han and Leia's relationship isn't romantic?

 

I thought the kiss was pretty obvious myself.

 

And the second one. And the third one...

 

For me and some others basically everything about H/L isn't romantic, A/P either. As presented neither are healthy relationships in my eyes. I understand many disagree which is fine.

 

Whether they're healthy or not doesn't matter. They aren't platonic, so by definition they're romantic.

You have a strange definition of the word. Arguing that romance doesn't exist in Star Wars because you didn't like the way it was presented is...odd.

 

Cushing's Admirer

Um. Okay. I thought Leia and Han really worked well together. I still do actually. How do they have unheathy relationships?

 

Still, it's not exactly relevant. None of that is actually canon, and even when it was canon those characters were pretty much hidden.

And I'm being quickly reminded why I've avoided looking in this thread for so long.

 

if its organic,sure

If its just for cramming the most PC stuff into one setting..no way thats just lame

One off the top off my head that was organic was Zero the Hutt based off Truman Capote both very very gay.

 

But I want all protagonists to be non-threatening straight white guys! Otherwise I might feel uncomfortable!

 

Not having something present in a work is one thing. A pervasive pattern of refusing to acknowledge that group's existence across a whole franchise's worth of media is another (yes, I know there are a couple of gay characters in the games/EU, but those are few and far between and generally minor characters). And the attitude that something shouldn't be present in a work (as opposed to it just happening to not occur) is prejudice, plain and simple.

You don't need exactly equal representation, but even approximately equal representation would be nice. And asking for representation is not the same as saying "fiction must be exactly like what exists in the real world." Of course there are differences between the GFFA and our world - differences in technology, politics, etc. But those differences exist for a storytelling reason, while there's no reason that there would be fewer or no LGBT people in the Star Wars galaxy. Finally, it's particularly important to have good representation of otherwise marginalized groups - LGBT, racial minorities, people with disabilities, etc. - because of how media representation plays into how they are treated in real life.

The point is that gay people exist (and bi people and so on, but for the moment we'll keep it simple). Gay kids exist. Kids with gay parents and gay friends and gay siblings exist. Kids who are going to encounter openly gay people in the future and whose opinions of sexual orientation may be based off of only what they see in the media and possibly what their parents tell them exist. So yes, gay people should exist on-screen as well.

 

Never said they don't, or they shouldn't. Just saying I do not see a reason to go out of their way to make sure everyone knows a certain character is gay and a certain character is straight. That kind of stuff is irrelevant as far as I am concerned. If you can't give me a good reason to include such information other than because "kids need to know they exist" or "cause they exist" it is really irrelevant to the story being told.

 

It shouldn't be about agendas. It should be included only if valid to how the story is intended to be told. Artistic expression is its own merit and shouldn't be unduely influenced by PCness.