PATRICK STEWART COMES OUT FOR GAY CHARACTERS

In an cover story and interview by Donna Minkowitz for the August 22, 1995 issue of The Advocate, Patrick Stewart says, it would be very appropriate if the upcoming Next Generation movies made it their business to have gay characters.Stewart also said he thought that gay people should be dismayed by the fact that they are not portrayed as part of the 24th Century, that he agreed with theories that Q was gay, that he found the idea that Q was simply the another aspect of Picard attractive, that he has read slash fiction and seen homoerotic illustrations of Riker, Picard and Data sharing a shower.

He also talks about his fascination for roles that explore the abuse of power and the fact that the threat of violence played a large role in his childhood.

Here’s are some more tidbits:

Q: You may or may not be aware of this, but there are some people who, for whatever reason, are absolutely convinced you’re gay.

A: So I’m told! This has come to my ears only recently … I wondered if it could be in any way connected with … Jeffrey … I can only say that I feel very good about it. From an evolutionary point of view, the acceptance and embracing of aspects of one’s personality is wonderful: To feel areas of vulnerability that I have not in the past associated with being a man. To also be able to admit, as I have been able to in recent years, to deep love and affection -sometimes verging on passion- for some of my male friends and colleagues. It is wonderful to feel at ease and comfortable with their arms around me and mine around them. To have a kind of delight in that. All of this is a very recent experience.

Q: You’ve told an interviewer you felt much discomfortäbout The Next Generation’s treatment of women.

A: I felt that the writers and producers could not escape from their own essential rigidity in their attitudes to women. They were continually featured as sexual objects, as softer, weaker, and therefore –it always seemed to me– second-class individuals. And because I believed and still do that the show represents what our underlying philosophies are, it doubly irritated me that in that area I thought we were failing. … there is kind of a boys club atmosphere about Star Trek, you understand. Our actresses were not finding sympathetic ears.