"Star Trek" fanboys react to "gay" episode by setting phasers to "whine"

Peter Kirk: Can you believe how many straight boys we're freaking out just by kissing!
Alex Freeman: I know! What a bunch of Romulan weenies!

Last week we wrote about the Star Trek: Next Generation episode "Blood and Fire" just released by the fan site Phase II that injected a desperately needed dose of queer into the Trek universe.

Curious how the episode was playing amongst the teeming hordes of straight Trek fans, I beamed over to TrekMovie.com and found a review of the episode posted on that site. Then I read the comments. Dear, dear, dear — talk about troubles with Tribbles.

Here are some of the comments.

From Mark:

I think the episode would have been better without the gay scene. In fact, I think you could have replaced the Freeman character with a woman, and very little of the drama would be removed. Having the gay scene means, as a father, I’m not sure if my eight-year-old son should watch this episode. He’s seen and enjoyed all the others. I’ve never had to worry about screening anything Star Trek before. ... I also think the gay storyline is the least interesting thing about the episode. The real drama is how Captain Kirk is going to avoid killing Spock and the others and still do the right thing. If Peter Kirk had been in love with a female crew member, I think all the great drama of the story would still be there. Also, younger kids could see what is essentially a very cool Star Trek episode.

From Brad:

What the hell is with the two guys dry-humping each other?? I’m sorry, but I’ve just lost a TON of respect for the Phase Two guys. Pushing blatant homosexuality in our faces is NOT the kind of Star Trek I want to watch! >:o( Completely uncalled for and not in the spirit of Star Trek. Disgusting!! 

From Steve:

Is there really a need to shove the gay relationship down the throat of the viewers and try to preach to the viewers that such a relationship is ok?

Sigh, it's almost as predictable as a redshirt character getting offed on an away mission. And I didn't include any of the shockingly ignorant comments about AIDS.

It just cracks me up to read these guys going on about how hard it was to sit through the 3 1/2 minute "gay" scene and how blatant the sexuality was. Yeah, because Star Trek has always been so subtle about male heterosexuality.

Jeri Ryan as Seven-of-Nine, a character completely appropriate for four-year-olds — as long as they are still breast feeding

The women of Star Trek

Clearly, male heterosexuality has nothing to do with these female characters. Hey, in the future, finding material to make clothing out of is very hard to do thereby requiring very short and/or skintight dresses.  And those breasts are only so perky because there is no gravity in space! 

And let's not forget Mudd's women who were basically being sold off to men. 

Because objectifying women as items to be traded is just the message to send to young children. As long as they aren't being traded to other women. That would just be disgusting!

Ai yi yi! Talk about heterosexual privilege!

Listen up all you straight boys who have a problem with this episode because I have a few things to say. First off, shut up already. You do not own Star Trek or science fiction. I've endured four decades of Star Trek doing nothing but "shoving heterosexuality down my throat" and survived just fine. Grow a pair and deal with it.

Second of all, no, you can not object to gay content that is comparable to straight content, whine how you don't want to see it and it isn't right, and then claim you aren't homophobic. Yes, you are homopohobic. Change or grow a pair and deal with it. 

Third, if you think your four-year-old, eight-year-old or whatever-old is old enough to watch a crewman be graphically devoured by bloodworms or to ogle Jeri Ryan's ginormous bazooms, then they are old enough to know that sometimes men fall in love with men and that they even kiss. And get married. Again, GROW A PAIR!

That being said, it must be noted that there are many positive comments on the site that are from straight men including James Cawley, Phase II's executive producer, who is in large part responsible for getting the episode made. While it is very disheartening to know that even in 2009 a single episode of an online fan series can generate this much homophobia (imagine the straight-boy vapors that would happen if the actual Star Trek movie next summer included a gay character!) it is very heartening to know that there are also a lot of straight guys who do get it. At least they can boldly go where these others cannot.