Gay rights - does Star Trek ever address this issue?

I am aware of the picture of the man wearing the 'dress' from TNG, which promotes gender equality, but are gay rights ever addressed in Star Trek at all? (All seasons accepted.)

Answer

Takei said he spoke to Roddenberry about the possibility of broaching the gay rights issue, and Roddenberry seemed genuinely interested in the idea for TNG but passed on before he could implement it.

But the shows have touched upon the issue very subtly in some places, as outlined here.

For instance, Trill relationships have tangentially introduced non-heteronormative attraction as well as complex gender identities:

• Beverly's love interest, Odan, is later seen in a female host


• Dax obviously has been both male and female, and there are definite homoerotic undertones in her re-encounter with Lenara Kahn in Rejoined. To a lesser degree, her re-encounter with Enina in Dax also demonstrates a shared continued romantic bond with another woman.
  (Jadzia and Lenara's kiss was apparently censored in several Southern states.)

And there's also the introduction of races with non-binary genders/marriages:

• J'naii, the asexual androgynous species from The Outcast, which Soren belonged to.


• Bynars, a genderless quasi-cybernetic race.


• Vissians, a species with 3 sexes and genders where the 3rd sex was treated almost like communal property that's passed around to couples trying to reproduce.


• Andorians, who—according to Data—require groups of four to marry. In canonical works, there have only been 2 genders depicted, but they could potentially have more than 2 genders, or 4 sexes and 2 genders (i.e. 4 different sets of plumbing, though only 2 culturally expressed genders).



• Bolians, who have 2 genders but sometimes marry in groups of 3 or more, as implied in Field of Fire when Ezri mentions that Petty Officer Zim Brott has a "co-husband" in addition to a wife.

And, ironically, the chauvinistic Ferengi race has also been used to explore trans characters:

• Quark gets gender-reassignment surgery in Profit and Lace.


• Pel is also forced to crossdress because of Ferengi repression of females.

There's also lots of homoerotic scenes in DS9 episodes dealing with the mirror universe:

• Intendant Kira Nerys' attraction to prime Kira appears to go beyond just narcissism. The show also hints at a sexual relationship with Ezri Tigan.



• Ezri Tigan later seems to hit it off with mirror Leeta.

Lastly, there was a sexy scene between Raijin and T'Pol.

For more info, see this Ex Astris Scientia article, which lists some more subtle gay/trans symbolism in Star Trek (e.g. Laas being an analogy for an openly gay character, Pa'nar Syndrome and the perceived deviance of mindmelders as an analogy for the ostracism of the gay community and the perception during the 80s of AIDS as a "gay man's disease", etc.).