I think that there are no gay characters ON SCREEN is simply because we are seeing so very little of their lives
It's funny you say that, because I remember when TNG and DS9 was popular there were complaints about it becoming a soap opera, because suddenly all these relationships were popping up. We had the the Deanna/Riker will they won't they, then Deanna/Worf, then it was Worf/Dax, and there was obvious UST between Crusher and Picard. Obviously Crusher had a relationship with a man at one point, as the father of Wesley was her former husband. Sisko had his wife who had died. In the background we had O'Brien and Kieko?? (I forget if that name is right) burgeoning from a relationship to marriage.
On DS9 we had Odo/Kira, we had the relationship between Quark's brother and that girl...? Righ. And then there were all kinds of romantic shenanigans in Voyager etc. Strangely, ALL OF THEM STRAIGHT. The only queering we sortave, maybe had, was with Garak (the simple tailer, hahahah) and his interest in Dr Bashir. Both actors were playing that up, but went away soon enough. And we Dax...at one stage, what with the host, complication thingy and a previous flame.
So, I think it's safe to say, we have a very different look at the entire series. For a show that always prided itself on diversity, it really didn't have much of it when it came to a person's sexual orientation.
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It's funny you say that, because I remember when TNG and DS9 was popular there were complaints about it becoming a soap opera, because suddenly all these relationships were popping up. We had the the Deanna/Riker will they won't they, then Deanna/Worf, then it was Worf/Dax, and there was obvious UST between Crusher and Picard. Obviously Crusher had a relationship with a man at one point, as the father of Wesley was her former husband. Sisko had his wife who had died. In the background we had O'Brien and Kieko?? (I forget if that name is right) burgeoning from a relationship to marriage.
On DS9 we had Odo/Kira, we had the relationship between Quark's brother and that girl...? Righ. And then there were all kinds of romantic shenanigans in Voyager etc. Strangely, ALL OF THEM STRAIGHT. The only queering we sortave, maybe had, was with Garak (the simple tailer, hahahah) and his interest in Dr Bashir. Both actors were playing that up, but went away soon enough. And we Dax...at one stage, what with the host, complication thingy and a previous flame.
So, I think it's safe to say, we have a very different look at the entire series. For a show that always prided itself on diversity, it really didn't have much of it when it came to a person's sexual orientation.