Gender and LGBT themes in Science Fiction

Sexuality... the final frontier. Sexuality and gender rights are something humanity grapples with to this day. Of course you may say to yourself that in America women have been emancipated and homosexuals are free to do whatever and whomever they like. Granted the US is in a better state than Saudi Arabia where homosexuals are executed or in parts of Africa where girls have their genitals mutilated. However, America has not come as far as it could have. Only a few years ago a woman was fired by a Christian fundamentalist organization for… being a woman. Only seven years ago were homosexual acts banned in US states. Despite recent legal gains, there still remain stigmas and discrimination that cannot be removed by any law. Daily women are halted by the class ceiling or homosexuals are disowned by their families. If this is us today, where will we be in the future, and what does science fiction predict?
A great deal of science fiction portrays gender equality in the future. In the game Mass Effect the character’s crews’ professional soldier is a female that has very feminine characteristics. If the player chooses a female character their avatar is treated with the same respect as a male character. In Mass Effect 2 there are multiple strong female characters in the game who exhibit feminine characteristics and who are extremely courageous and have exceptional martial prowess. Star Trek was very influential in breaking gender stereotypes by having strong female characters, such as Uhura, who was one of the black female characters on television. The Next Generation continues this trend by having three strong female main characters, including Tasha Yar as security chief. This leads to the question of whether humanity will gradually evolve to be gender blind and continue to gradually progress throughout the centuries? Or will the changing nature of warfare allow women a greater role in conflicts? This is not to say that women cannot perform as well as men. I personally believe that if a woman wishes to fight in a conflict, she should be able to. However, it is a general conception that females should not fight in modern wars. On the other hand, there are works such as “The Handmaiden’s Tale,” which although a feministpiece, portrays a totalitarian world where traditional values suppress women in a disaster stricken world. Would the need to reproduce for war, for survival, or to colonize new worlds abet the repression of women in the future?
LGBT equality seems to be less touched upon in mainstream science fiction, although there are subgenres of homosexual science fiction. Star Trek, although a forerunner in women rights and multiculturalism, shied away from LGBT issues. However, there has was one episode of Deep Space Nine that featured a female marriage and kiss. Mass Effect on the other hand was banned in multiple nations for having a lesbian sex scene between a human and a feminine alien. These examples seem to reflect the common belief in Western society that lesbianism is more acceptable than homosexuality in males. One show that has broken barriers is Torchwood, the characters of which are mainly bisexual or omnisexual. The show is famous for a passionate kiss between the main protagonist and a character played by James Marsters, who was Spike in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. As we encounter other species, we may find that they have four genders or reproduce in a way completely unlike ours. Perhaps this will open humanity’s eyes to new horizons of acceptance.