At the 32nd Annual GLAAD Awards held Thursday night the third time was the charm for Star Trek: Discovery.
Discovery wins first GLAAD
The GLAAD Media Awards are “to recognize and honor media for their fair, accurate and inclusive representations of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) community and the issues that affect their lives.” Star Trek: Discovery went in with one nomination and came away winning for Outstanding Drama Series. It beat out competition from 9-1-1: Lone Star (FOX), Killing Eve (BBC America), P-Valley (Starz), Ratched (Netflix), Supergirl (The CW), The Umbrella Academy (Netflix), Vida (Starz), The Wilds (Amazon), Wynonna Earp (Syfy).
This was the third year the series has been nominated, but the first win. Discovery stars Wilson Cruz, Anthony Rapp, Blu del Barrio, and Ian Alexander appeared virtually from the set of season four production to accept the award.
Rapp pointed to how the third season increased the show’s LGBTQ representation:
We were already really proud of the work we have been doing on Star Trek: Discovery in seasons one and two, but I have to say in season three our creative team hit it out of the park when they introduced the inclusive, beautiful, moving story of our new crewmembers Adira and Grey.
del Barrio said playing Adira has been a “gift from the universe,” and referred to Rapp and Cruz as their “space dads.” Ian Alexander said, “Through this show, our community is being seen the way we want to be, as our most authentic selves.”
Wilson Cruz promised there is more to come, saying:
Season four is going to be the best yet, so keep watching.
You can see them accept the award in the clip below.
Blu del Barrio, @ianaIexander, @wcruz73 and @albinokid accept the #GLAADawards for @StarTrekOnPPlus! pic.twitter.com/d4OHfqzhYD
— GLAAD (@glaad) April 9, 2021
Support the community with Star Trek stuff
ViacomCBS is donating 100% proceeds from the sale of the Discovery GLAAD Collection to support their work to accelerate acceptance for LGBTQ people.
Find more Star Trek: Discovery news and analysis at TrekMovie.com.
Wow, congrats to Discovery!!!!
This is pretty awesome and it’s nice to see Star Trek winning these types of awards again!
I think while third season still had it’s problems, one of the things it did do well was show LGBTQ characters in a bigger light, especially with Adira and Grey. But still not hit you over the head with it. It’s just nice to see these issues acknowledged, even if by the 32nd century everyone is really really cool with it! ;)
Very proud of what this show and franchise accomplished!
Absolutely agreed! It’s lovely and well-deserved.
And to those who may think that LGBT folks want to “shoehorn” important issues into Star Trek, well… leaving aside the fact that that’s kind of Star Trek’s thing in the first place, I’ll simply note that at its best, representation exists in a quiet state of common decency. I think the third season succeeded not only in promoting representation but in doing it in a way that doesn’t feel preachy to the point of devaluing itself. This is the kind of representation that I, at least, love to see — it’s there, it matters, and it coexists alongside the story as just one part of the whole.
Nice work, Disco. Well earned.
It’s nice to finally see someone like me in Star Trek. I understand a little better now why representation matters.
The human adventure is just beginning.
And speaking from somebody from a demographic that’s been abundantly represented in Star Trek I just want to say it’s about damn time. Representation is great because it celebrates our diversity but for me what makes it so important is at its heart it shows how alike we all are. We all have the same basic human emotions,needs, hopes and fears regardless of our race, sexual orientation or gender identity so I don’t need a show to be stacked full of straight white men to find characters that I can identify with. That to me is why representation is so important, it puts faces and personalities on groups that may have been marginalised and faced discrimination in society and it says they’re just like you.
Exactly. Representation is about giving everyone the experience of seeing a few characters like you, and then seeing a lot of characters that are different in all kinds of ways. This lets us embrace our differences as what makes us unique and interesting, while coming together under the unified banner of humanity caring about human decency, and showing we really aren’t that different after all. LLAP!
Hear, hear.
Meh. Feels slightly hollow, like they’ve just been trying to meet some ‘representation quota’. Just more tokenism. I get that people enjoy that representation regardless, but I thought it was sloppy and mishandled. Like Adira should not have had to ‘come out’ 1000 years into the future. It shouldn’t have been an issue. In fact, none of the ‘queer’ aspects felt natural, like they had to shoehorn them in, and had to make sure there was zero subtlety so that everyone got the message. Made me cringe. So this win seems more like a participation trophy.
Any time the individual’s queerness is not physically apparent, a degree of coming out will always be needed. Adira is 15. That they may not have known they were non-binary until they were 15 is totally realistic. So after being referred to as “she” for several episodes, they corrected Stamets. The passage of centuries won’t change the interaction we watched. What will change is the reaction to the coming out. And the reaction on Discovery has been that their non-binary identity isn’t an issue. They are still one of the smartest people on the ship, and valued as such. But assuming that in the 31st century non-binary people won’t have to come out isn’t….logical.
Yeah but it wasn’t a simple ‘oh by the way it’s they not she’ with Stamets replying ‘noted’ like it really was no big deal. Instead there was this build-up to it, a lot of frustration from Adira, and Stamets being overly-supportive. And notice they confided in Stamets and not a [non-queer] person, which says a lot. So instead of actually treating it like it’s no big deal, they thought that would be too subtle and instead they drew too much attention to it, making it seem like it’s still an issue for some people in the future.
Again I’d just point out that coming to terms with being queer isn’t just a matter of how open or not open a particular society or culture is. It will likely always be a matter of figuring yourself out. I personally suspected my sexual orientation at that age, but I’m not sure I knew for certain. So I read Blu’s performance to inform their internal journey, not one of concern they’d be shunned. As for choosing Stamets, I also didn’t read their choice to be any reflection of his sexual orientation, rather just the culmination of their frustration at always being assumed to prefer “she” and him calling them “she”. Just a different perspective :)
A huge congrats to the well-won LGBTW team over at Disco! Thank you for everything you are doing. Can’t wait for season 4. And of course, LLAP!
Congrats, but I do feel that Dr Culber particulary could be better served by the show. Wilson Cruz oozes warmth, and I strongly feel he’d be the perfect “anchor” for the audience into this world ( of Discovery ), and also THE ‘shoulder-to-cry-on’/support for the rest of the crew.
Please give him ( and Stamets ) more to do.
The introductions for Gray and Adira were nice, but don’t let them become just “gilded wallpaper”. Let’s step them up as characters!
I’m not all that wild about Stamets, if I’m being honest. But I love Culber, and totally agree that the writing ought to be serving him better.
I don’t know for sure, but my guess is that the writers at Discovery planned out at least a two or perhaps three season arc for Gray and Adira. They are young and they can be dramatic, and really break new ground. Being young also is a great way to build a demographic for this new Star Trek. Stamets and Culber are already middle aged and so their dramas seem forced by the plot, not the other way around.
I agree; I love Cruz’s Culber and would love to see him as a central character.
Congrats! Well deserved.
But Star Trek should have had gay characters at least since TNG. They are VERY late in representing that demographic. Star Trek used to be the most progressive franchise but fell behind.
There is no reason why any of the characters could not be gay. But, at least it’s doing better now with representation.
There were some gay coded characters and story lines in TOS. I would not call them particularly progressive, but they existed at least.
As a vigorously heterosexual white male, I vigorously applaud Discovery for boldly going outside of my well represented demographic. Growing up, as a geeky kid, Star Trek was my refuge. The hallways of my high school were the corridors of the Enterprise. I always chose the center desk in the classroom as my Captain’s chair. I’ve a gay twin sibling. It was doubly hard for him, growing up. Being a nerdy kid, he and I would watch the show, together, go to each movie premier. It was after we saw TWOK, he came out to me.
He escaped to the big city after graduating high school. When Discovery came on, he called me, crying. He said that he was finally “normal” on American TV. I got to tell Wilson and Anthony that story in Vegas.
Both of them stood up, embraced me and said tell your brother “Thanks for the love!” I actually called my brother and Wilson took a moment to thank my brother for watching.
I’m excited to see what happens over the course of the next few years. So many LGBTQ persons will get to look up to characters on their TV that reflect their true selves. What will they be able to accomplish, being inspired by these characters..
Well done, Discovery!
I really wish I liked the show more. These characters are excellent (especially Adira and Grey, kudos to their win, here), the actors are doing some really fine work, the stories on paper are compelling… I just wish the writers and directors would pull back on the melodrama a bit, and let the show be more relaxed. It feels like a muscle that is always tensing, it’s like they worry what will happen if every scene doesn’t have a gut-wrenching, agonizing moment.
I know there’s been a lot of criticism of Green in particular, but when a performance is weak I am hesitant to blame the actors because I imagine the directors or show-runners off camera saying “more intensity, like you’re making the most painful decision of your life as you sit at the bridge console and tap the button t engage warp engines.”
I think the storytelling on the show this season has been pretty lacklustre ( with perhaps only a few shining moments ).
Season 4, they need to step things up a LOT.
Congratulations!!!
They all totally look like they are in character in that photo!
That’s because they pretty much “play” themselves on the show.
D@mn. Who’s cutting onions?!!!
Representation matters, and quality representation is even better. No, I am not quite Disco’s biggest supporter, but I would like to put in a nice word for Blu del Barrio. Blu is a natural in front of the camera. At a young age, and from a generation that is prone to Youtube-personality hysterics, Blu comes across as comparatively low-key and sincere. Blu seems to intrinsically know that less is more when it comes to acting for the camera and Blu possesses an easy-going, effortless charisma. So begrudgingly, I’ll admit Team Alex nailed the casting on this one.
All four of them have done really nice work; I’m especially fond of Cruz’s Culber and hope to see a lot more of him in Season 4.
Congratulations to everyone involved!