I know. It should have been a man. It’s ridiculous that the first positive queer characters on Star Trek were on Discovery. It shouldn’t have taken that long.
Ira Stephen Behr and Ronald D. Moore later lamented that they didn’t push back harder against Berman and other producers for queer representation on DS9 in the DS9 documentary What We Left Behind. They notably had tried in the beginning with Garak and Bashir and were immediately shut down.
Behr, in particular, really felt bad about it.
Edit: Andy Robinson, who played Garak, had a real “fuck you” attitude about that and continued to play Garak as “omnisexual” anyway. There are little hints and innuendos throughout the entire entire series between him and Dr. Bashir. 
From what I understand, the bigger issue was that the producers thought the networks would get cagey if they went any further with queer representation. You must sadly remember that this was the 90s - not even ten years since a White House press secretary had openly laughed in a press conference about gay people dying of AIDS.
The show was made for syndication, so it wasn’t airing on any particular network. It was Rick Berman that had the issue with it on Deep Space 9, and both he and Brannon Braga (aka “Bermaga”) that had an issue with it on Voyager and TNG. Both of them are known homophobes. 
But even what happened with Ellen in 1995 and Will and Grace in 1997, didn’t make much progress on Star Trek. There was even a scene with lieutenant Hawk and his husband in Star Trek first contact that was cut per Rick Berman‘s orders. 
edit: sorry for the multiple replies! lemmy is being weird
He keeps his options open.
And Frakes was down with his interest being played by a man.
I know. It should have been a man. It’s ridiculous that the first positive queer characters on Star Trek were on Discovery. It shouldn’t have taken that long.
Ira Stephen Behr and Ronald D. Moore later lamented that they didn’t push back harder against Berman and other producers for queer representation on DS9 in the DS9 documentary What We Left Behind. They notably had tried in the beginning with Garak and Bashir and were immediately shut down.
Behr, in particular, really felt bad about it.
Edit: Andy Robinson, who played Garak, had a real “fuck you” attitude about that and continued to play Garak as “omnisexual” anyway. There are little hints and innuendos throughout the entire entire series between him and Dr. Bashir. 
All I’m saying is they had daily lunch dates and Bashir doesn’t pursue Dax as much when Garak is around.
all I’m saying is nobody gets their pants altered that often, and “your pants are ready to be picked up” is their not-very-subtle fuck code.
Garak would be a power bottom.
Who wouldn’t want a genetically-engineered top?
From what I understand, the bigger issue was that the producers thought the networks would get cagey if they went any further with queer representation. You must sadly remember that this was the 90s - not even ten years since a White House press secretary had openly laughed in a press conference about gay people dying of AIDS.
The show was made for syndication, so it wasn’t airing on any particular network. It was Rick Berman that had the issue with it on Deep Space 9, and both he and Brannon Braga (aka “Bermaga”) that had an issue with it on Voyager and TNG. Both of them are known homophobes. 
But even what happened with Ellen in 1995 and Will and Grace in 1997, didn’t make much progress on Star Trek. There was even a scene with lieutenant Hawk and his husband in Star Trek first contact that was cut per Rick Berman‘s orders. 
edit: sorry for the multiple replies! lemmy is being weird
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To quote Neelix from Avenue 5:
“A hole’s a hole, I’ll take it where I can get it“
Now quote Neelix from Benson!
What are you saying Benson?