Please, Star Wars, Let Poe Dameron, or Any Hero, Be Gay

The Mary Sue ^ | December 29, 2018 | Kate Gardner

[EdnaMode]

Today is the last Friday of the year, and also the last day that Twitter is featuring #SWRepMatters, a Twitter campaign designed to talk about representation in all forms in the Star Wars universe. This runs the gamut from racial and ethnic representation to sexuality to disabled rep, with each month focusing on a new identity. As the year comes to a close, the founders of the event have used today to talk about the ways in which Star Wars did right by rep this year, and where they still need to grow.

We’re a year out from Episode IX now, and none of the films have included a character who identifies as being part of the LGBT+ community. Fans have speculated about the character of Poe Dameron, played by Oscar Isaac, since he bit his lip and offered Finn (John Boyega) his jacket.

Screenwriter Jon Kasdan and star Donald Glover implied that Lando Calrissian might be pansexual, but the onscreen rep for that seems to be his romantic interest in his female-identified droid rather than any actual flirtation or romance with a male character. Rian Johnson said there was no room for sexuality in his film The Last Jedi, all while talking about how Rey and Kylo’s fingers touching is a sex scene.

Now, we’re four films into the new Star Wars, some might say. Give them time. But the problem is is that we shouldn’t have to wait in 2018, almost 2019, for a major franchise that’s been around for over 40 years to recognize that LGBT+ characters might exist. A line about Poe’s boyfriend wouldn’t have dragged down The Last Jedi any more than an unnecessary shirtless Kylo Ren scene did.

[otness_e]

Never necessarily said Hogwarts was Catholic, I just used that as an example of an English boarding school type that couldn’t have used homosexuals as the heads.

As far as “right in the open”, yeah, I don’t know about that. All that spoke to me was that Dumbledore placed a lot of trust in Grindenwald and got burned for it. Obi-Wan also was like that with Anakin as well, heck, Anakin to Palpatine, for that matter, last I checked, both those guys were heterosexual.

[otness_e]

You and me both. I actually dislike the practice of rooting for villains and try to avoid that whenever possible, so the fact that Lucas by his deciding to make America into the villains, and worse, make Vietcong members out to be the heroes, and brags about it constantly pretty much forced me to root for the “bad guys” from here on out. Not even Metal Gear did that, and I also was disgusted with Kojima depicting America as the bad guy (not to mention Peace Walker infamously having Miller and Big Boss becoming Che Guevara fans despite the fact that he nearly caused a nuclear war during the Cuban Missile Crisis). Heck, not even Linda Woolverton’s revelation that Maleficent was supposed to push the same themes as Beauty and the Beast (which, knowing what THAT film was like, pretty much retroactively tainted Beauty and the Beast as a film, even without the subtle hints that I realized on my own when dealing with several far-left professors in College that left me deeply cynical about higher education as a result), that’s how badly I took that revelation.

[otness_e]

Well, okay, maybe not as far as not watch another episode again (I did watch Rogue One, though I rooted for the Empire largely thanks to Lucas’ revelation. In fact, I learned of that from Chris Taylor’s How Star Wars Conquered the Universe. I didn’t watch The Last Jedi or Solo, although that was partly because I was already boycotting Disney thanks to their making LeFou gay, inserting gay scenes in Star vs. The Forces of Evil, and also their mishandling of Jemele Hill at Bob Iger’s request.), but it definitely shook me to my core.

[jughandle]

I was 9 when the first Star Wars came out and if any character was a homosexual I guarantee no kid that age would have seen it more than once if for nothing else the fear of your friends calling you gay. Or not seen it at all once word got around it had a homosexual in it.

[Morpheus2009]

To me, Star Wars is whatever. I honestly was fine that at one time I had one every three years. I guess I am not obssessed enough to chase after mostly Star Wars movies. Besides the story is over as far as I am concerned.