Gene Roddenberry fought NBC over his multiracial crew in 1966, but there was one group he couldn't include - even though he desperately wanted to. The original Star Trek broke barriers with TV's first interracial kiss and cast a Black woman as Lieutenant Uhura. But when it came to gay characters, that was one final frontier they couldn't cross.
'I would like to do that,' Roddenberry told George Takei. 'But I'm walking a tightrope.' Even after the controversial interracial kiss, showing gay characters would have meant instant cancellation.
Roddenberry had to hide his progressive messages behind Kirk's conveniently-timed shirtless scenes just to distract network censors. The show was already pushing boundaries by telling stories 'that weren't being dramatized metaphorically on any other show.'
Looking back now, the lack of gay representation stings. But in showing a future where race and gender didn't matter, Roddenberry was playing the long game. Those three revolutionary seasons changed television forever - paving the way for a Star Trek universe where gay characters like Stamets, Culber, and Sulu could finally exist openly and proudly
H/T: GFV on Facebook
An interesting fact that's not talked about much is that Star Trek was produced by Desilu Studios and it was Lucille Ball who personally intervened on numerous occasions to ensure the show made it to air. The rest as they say is history. Learn more here: https://www.startrek.com/news/how-lucille-ball-helped-star-trek-become-a-cultural-icon
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