Gay and/or Lesbian Characters in Science Fiction

A few minutes ago, my roommates and I couldn't think of any at all. Maybe we need more exposure to the genre, but we cannot for the life of us think of any homosexual characters in Science Fiction. Can you? Surely there must be many.

Inara Serra in Firefly swings both ways. Then again, she's of the whorin' variety. There was some sexual tension between her and Kaylee, though. And strictly speaking, Firefly is less s.f. than space opera.

It's fantasy, but Willow from Buffy is gay.

That's a start. But what about other media such as film, TV, or video games?

Not specifically Sci Fi in this case but nearly all of Torchwood swing both ways Willow and Tara in Buffy. Also pretty sure the Doctor is a opportunist. Angela Montenegro in Bones is Bi. I think there has been 1 or 2 minor characters in Smallville. I can't think of any in Heroes (Peter and Nathan aren't).

I think there's going to be a gay couple in Ron Moore's next show, Virtuality.

In parts of Joe Haldeman's The Forever War, the protagonist is virtually the only character in the story who isn't gay.

The only other examples I can think of are in the fantasy and horror genres, but I'm not all that well-versed in science fiction, so maybe that's not surprising.

I did find this, though.

Minor BSG spoilery thing:

SPOILERS! (Click to view)

That's pretty hot. It also puts a spin of Gaeta and Baltar's time together on new Caprica.

Do Tara/Willow count as sci fi? I know Star Trek was supposed to have gay characters since Next Generation, but Berman keeps shooting them down.

Does Jadzia Dax count as Bi since there was a scene between her and one of the previous hosts' wives?

Yeah, but that wasn't about being gay. It was about "her past hosts being in love with each other when they were opposite sexes." Okay, metaphors are fine, but that was such a tepid toe in the water "they're not gay" excuse.

Baron Harkonnen is gay (or bi, although he's largely depicted as lusting after young men). Dune.

Anne McCaffrey writes lesbian, gay, and bi characters in the Dragonriders of Pern series.

There are a number of lesbians in Y: The Last Man. If superhero comics count as sci-fi, Karolina Dean of Runaways is a lesbian. And it's been a long time since I've read it, but by the end of Stranger in a Strange Land, weren't all the characters pretty much bi?

Pretty much.

Do webcomics count? El Goonish Shive has a number of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered characters.

That doesn't appear to be Sci-Fi.

It ebbs and flows. One character is a clone, another was born as an odd mix of science and magic as a transgendered version of another character. The early storylines followed a genetically engineered being with a god complex who planned on breeding an army of soldiers to take over the world.

The current storyline is about the kids settling into new schools. Ebb, flow.

Major Kusanagi.

Xena , warrior princess & her trusty sidekick Gabrielle ! Fantasy , not sci - fi , I'm afraid . Close as I can get though .

Oh I just remembered Lucy from Elven Lied.

I used to work for an editor from Tor and I remember Marion Zimmer Bradley's name being mentioned at the feminist science fiction convention we used to help put together as an author who had alot of lesbian characters in her work.

Ricardo Pinto's "The Stone Dance of The Chameleon" series has a homosexual protagonist, but it is technically fantasy fiction.

Check out Storm Constantine's Wraeththu series of books. Gender is sort of arcane in those.