“Homophobia, Racism, Bigotry”: Star Trek Actor Playing The First Gay Klingon Responds To Backlash

Even those who don’t really follow Star Trek probably know about their most iconic alien race, the Klingon. And there’s a gay one now! And everyone is being normal about it, of course.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy actor Karim Diané has taken to his Instagram to engage with the standard backlash that comes from any legacy show incorporating gay characters. The actor said he was “scared” about playing the first out gay Klingon character – Starfleet cadet Jay-Den Kraag – in the Star Trek franchise, precisely due to the backlash he knew would come his way.

Since launching on Paramount+, Starfleet Academy was almost immediately review bombed, thanks to casting women and people of colour, which has been perceived as “going woke”, despite Star Trek’s long history of pioneering this kind of casting. The inclusion of a gay Klingon hasn’t particularly helped this issue either.

“Star Trek’s first gay Klingon is Jay-Den in Starfleet Academy,” Karim Diané said in a video. “Not gonna pretend like I wasn’t afraid to take on this role. Part of me still kinda is. I knew that I was gonna, you know, receive a lot of negative comments that were rooted in homophobia and racism and bigotry. But what y’all have to understand, I have received 10 times more messages from LGBTQ people around the world telling me how much this character Jay-Den means to them. And that is all that matters to me, truly.”

 

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Diané also shared an email he received from Brad Takei, the husband of legendary Star Trek actor and queer advocate George Takei.

“Seeing you step into a queer role—especially in Star Trek, a franchise George holds so dear—is so meaningful to us. [George] spoke with Gene Roddenberry in the 1960s about LGBTQ+ representation, but the risks were too high. When Star Trek featured the groundbreaking Kirk-Uhura interracial kiss, it led to blacklisting in several Southern states. Roddenberry feared that tackling same-sex love themes might result in outright cancellation. How extraordinary that we have now arrived at a moment where characters like yours exist in Star Trek Starfleet Academy—something George has always hoped for.”