Discovery Gets Gay Doctor
Last week, Star Trek Discovery actors, showrunners, and writers filled a panel at San Diego Comic-Con, hosted by Rainn Wilson. They were there promoting the upcoming television series, airing this September.
Plenty of previously unannounced details were given to the public about the series, including that the love interest of Lt. Stamets will be played by Wilson Cruz. You may remember Cruz from My So-Called Life along side Claire Danes.
Cruz will be playing Dr. Hugh Culber, a medical doctor aboard the USS Discovery.
In the summer of 2016, Bryan Fuller, creator of Star Trek Discovery, went on record stating that the television series would get its first openly-gay character. Fuller, an openly gay man himself, made mention to the fact that it was time for the show to do a better job at representing those within the LGBTQ2 community. Especially since Star Trek, at its core, is about inclusiveness. Most critics praised the move.
Racist Detractors Attack
Then earlier this year, Discovery came under attack upon the release of it’s first trailer. Not because the series doesn’t look good – many fans agree that it does. Rather, because the two main protagonists, both women of color, weren’t white enough or male enough. “White genocide” it was called by some. Others, claiming to be long-time fans, swore to never watch the new show. How one can claim to be a long-time fan and not see beneath the thinly-veiled disguise that Star Trek is about equality and inclusiveness isn’t clear.
Since then the dust has somewhat settled, until now.
With the public finally learning that Lt. Paul Stamets (Anthony Rapp) and Dr. Hugh Culber (Wilson Cruz) are openly-gay lovers, there appears to be another backlash starting against the show. Perhaps not yet as vocal as the racist detractors last month, but present none-the-less.


Cruz Writes Back
Unsurprisingly, Wilson Cruz has take time to reply to a number of the attacks lobbied his way. He is known for being somewhat of an activist for gay rights.
Backing him up are a number of Star Trek fans who have also taken to Twitter to let Cruz know they’re happy about his appearance on Discovery – and what he represents and means to them personally.
In 50 years of Star Trek on television, no main character has been openly gay. In 2016, Star Trek: Beyond did introduce Sulu as being gay in the movie series, but his character was never openly gay in the tv series.
Star Trek Discovery airs this September 24th on CBS All Access in the USA, CraveTV/Space in Canada, and on Netflix around the world.