John Cho's Sulu is Gay in STAR TREK BEYOND

When Star Trek: The Original Series featured one of the first interracial kisses on television, the ratings took a hit because many outlets in the deep South refused to air the episode. The franchise has always embraced that progressive mentality, and Gene Roddenberry's vision was a world in which people of all races and sexual orientations were considered legitimate equals. While George Takei, who played Sulu in the original series and the subsequent movies, famously came out as gay in 2005 and has been one of the most vocal advocates of the LGBTQ community in the following years, there has yet to be a major gay character (as far as I can tell) in any of the Trek shows or movies. But that's about to change, and in a cool way that gives a nod to Takei himself.

John Cho, who plays Hikaru Sulu in the Kelvin-verse movies (the new trilogy starting with J.J. Abrams' 2009 Star Trek), spoke with the Herald Sun and revealed that his character is depicted as gay in this month's new movie Star Trek Beyond:

Helmsman of the USS Enterprise, Hikaru Sulu, played by John Cho, is shown in Star Trek Beyond as the loving father of a daughter with a same sex partner. And in typical trailblazing Trek fashion — it’s just not a big deal.

“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations,” said Cho.

That's gotta be cool to hear if you're someone who cares at all about representation issues in the media we all consume, and not making a big deal out of it seems like the perfect way to tackle the subject. If more stories start to follow suit (there have been rumblings of a LGBTQ character on Bryan Fuller's new series next year, but hopefully this extends past just the Star Trek franchise), it'll be a nice step toward improving our society's reaction to sexuality.