Queer Connection to Sci fi

The beginnings of queer representation in fiction writing is considered to have began in the 1960's but mostly contained homophobic stereotypes. As the lesbian-feminist and gay liberation movements took form in the early 70's it led to a strong push towards more accurate depictions of queer representation.

One of these works that came from this shift was, Kindred Spirits, the first anthology of gay and lesbian science fiction stories. First published in 1984 by Alyson Publications, one of the oldest LGBTQ publishing houses in operation, the anthology boasted twelve queer science fiction stories written by authors of varying identities, ranging from legendary lesbian author Joanna Russ to openly gay Star Trek screenwriter David Gerrold.

As queer characters began to be incorporated into science fiction television and film in the early nineties the depictions were quite cautious and focused around extremely short-lived characters. They also a tendency to add a component to the story so it wasn't a straight forward human queer story.

Further Reading:

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/how-genre-has-failed-and-served-queer-representation

https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/13-nonbinary-writers-and-comic-creators-changing-science-fiction-and-fantasy

One of the earliest examples include the story line from the Star Trek The Next Generation episode from 1992: The Outcast. The Alien race the J'naii that find gender specificity and sexuality to be unacceptable. One member of J'naii named Soren falls for Commander Riker and reveals that they had a gender identity that their society would not allow which ultimately leads to Soren having to go through conversion therapy. Although this depicted a gender queer race it received criticism from the LGBTQ+ community because at the time the community considered it to be almost a loophole in addressing an LGBTQ+ storyline. As the intention of the episode was to address homosexuality using a cisgendered female actress portraying a nonbinary alien who falls for a cisgendered male. There was no intention of bringing awareness to the discussion on gender identity which wasn't as widely known at the time.

A prominent example of queer representation in science fiction of today is the American Cartoon Steven Universe, created by nonbinary artist Rebecca Sugar in 2013. The program itself contains lesbian, transgender, intersex and non-binary characters as it tells of a human boys adventures with the powerful crystal gems.

Most recently the nonbinary human character of Shep was added to the series voiced by nonbinary star and LGBTQ+ activist Indya Moore.