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Another female kiss, this one lacking any emotional resonance, was in the episode “The Emperor's New Cloak”, set in the mirror universe of Star Trek—where everything is the parallel, yet opposite. The counterparts to Colonel Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) and Ezri Dax (Nicole deBoer) engage in a meaningless kiss. It's only intention seems to stimulate the straight-male fantasy of woman-on-woman action.

Finally, Star Trek: Voyager's episode, “Warlord” also had a same-sex kiss when a male psyche possessed the character of Kes (Jennifer Lien) and kissed another woman. Both characters were seen as duplicitous and evil—a stereotypical trademark of gay and bisexual characters in Hollywood.

While Star Trek on both the large and small screen has yet to portray a positive and well-rounded gay individual, the Trek publishing media has journeyed to that frontier many, many times. Most notable is the Section 31 novel, Star Trek: Rogue written by Andy Mangels and Michael A. Martin. The novel centers around Lieutenant Hawk (a character who had been rumored to be gay in pre-production of Star Trek: First Contact) and his partner, an un-joined Trill named, Ranul Keru.

Mangels believed the rumor of Hawk's being gay to be untrue. There was no evidence of the character's orientation in any movie screenplay that he saw, nor was Neal McDonough (who played Lt. Hawk) aware of such intentions. Mangels liked the Hawk character and “expected him to survive” the movie. When he and writing partner, Michael A. Martin brought the idea to their publishers about a gay character being the center of Rogue, he said they met no resistance of any kind.

As with everything in the 24th century, bigotry toward Hawk and Keru's relationship is nonexistent. In one passages from the book, Commander Riker and Data inquire about Hawk's upcoming anniversary as easily as if it were Worf's.

The novel stayed at the top of the USA Today best selling list for several weeks.

Mangels says, “When we decided to make Hawk the focal point of the book, we brought up with our editor, Marco Palmieri, that we wanted to make him gay, playing off the movie rumors. Marco was all for the idea, as long as the elements of his sexuality had something to do with the characterization and the story. Neither he--nor we--wanted the gay stuff to just be ‘stuck on'.”

The author, however, admits there were some problems with the Paramount licensing and worried the character's sexuality might be edited. He goes on to say, “Paramount licensing was very quiet about the book's contents, and made sure that Rick Berman and Brannon Braga (the Trek TV producers) did not see it before it went to press. There was some concern that the gay elements would be forcefully removed if Berman and Braga saw it. Once it was at the printer, it was given to their office. I never heard if there was fallout or not, but the book got publicity all around the world.”

Even though Lt. Hawk was killed in Star Trek: First Contact, Ranul Keru still remains a favorite character of the writers. Since his introduction in Rogue, Keru has gone on to appear in other novels by Mangels and Martin such as Tales of the Captain's Table, Worlds of Deep Space Nine, and the adventures of Captain Riker's starship, Star Trek: Titan. In the Titan series, Keru deals with the loss of Hawk and attempts to quell his growing anger for Worf—the man responsible for Hawk's death.

In more than four decades Star Trek has produced nearly a dozen feature films, more then five hundred episodes between five series, numerous video games, and countless books, comics, role-playing games, and magazines. The ground-breaking sci-fi franchise has broken through many barriers, such as being the first to have an interracial kiss (between William Shatner and Nichelle Nichols) on broadcast television, as well as touting the values of peace and tolerance for all. Yet the series has refused to address forthrightly the topic of homosexuality where it would most matter—on television or film.

Currently there are no new Trek series in the works, but there is an eleventh movie rumored to under consideration. Gay fans fervently hope Star Trek will live on and that one-day this remarkable franchise will finally—and boldly—go where none of its predecessors have gone before.

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