The Outcast

The Outcast

Having a gay character in a TV show is one way of dealing with the prejudices that surround society, but it is not the only way.

A Star Trek Next Generation Episode I have been watching recently – “The Outcast” looks at issues of sexuality and being considered an outcast in a very different way. By doing this, it gets under the radar of inherent cultural prejudices and hidden biases which most people have in some form or another.

The Enterprise comes to the assistance of the Genai, a race that has no gender, to help retrieve the crew of a shuttle that went missing in a mysterious void of "null space."

The Genai once had male and female sexes but have evolved into asexual beings with some kind of external insemination used to propagate the species – “Our foetuses are incubated in fibrous husks, which the parents inseminate “

But occasionally there are some Genai who identify with one gender or the other and are considered throwbacks, evolutionary sports. These identifications are forbidden and those individuals are subject to a psychological "treatment" that eradicates those "abnormal" feelings.

Here is Soren, one of the Genai, explaining how they have evolved into a genderless society and the difficulty in finding personal pronouns to use.

Soren:. My parents were pilots. I was flying with them before I could walk. And as soon as I was old enough, I entered flight school. Krite was my instructor.

Riker: He had a good student.

Soren: He? Commander, there are no he's or she's in a species without gender.

Riker: Okay. For two days I've been trying to construct sentences without personal pronouns. Now I give up. What should I use? It? To us, that's rude.

Soren: We use a pronoun which is neutral. I do not think there is really a translation.

Riker: Then I'll just have to muddle through. So forgive me if a stray he or she slips by, okay?

And in some later exchanges, they discuss the notion of gender:

Soren: We are puzzling to you, aren't we?

Riker: A little. It's hard to grasp the idea of no gender.

Soren: It's just as hard for us to understand the strange division in your species. Males and females. You are male. Tell me about males. What is it that makes you different from females?

Gender is offensive to the Genai, it is considered an aberration.

Soren: The idea of gender. It is offensive to my people. You see, long ago we had two sexes, as you do. But we evolved into a higher form. I don't mean to sound insulting, but on my planet we have been taught that gender is primitive.

Riker: Primitive?

Soren: Less evolved.

Soren and Riker are attracted to each other, but Soren has to tell Riker how people of their race who take up a gender are considered outcasts.

Soren: Commander, I'd like to tell you something. Something that's not easy to say.

Riker: What's that?

Soren: I find you attractive. I'm taking a terrible risk telling you that. It means revealing something to you, something that, if it were known on my planet, would be very dangerous for me. Occasionally, among my people, there are a few who are born different, who are throwbacks from the era when we all had gender. Some have strong inclinations to maleness, and some have urges to be female. I am one of the latter.

Riker: I have to admit I had a feeling you were different.

Soren: I was hoping you would. But in front of Krite and the others, I must be careful not to reveal myself.

Riker: Why?

Soren: On our world these feelings are forbidden. Those who are discovered are shamed and ridiculed, and only by undergoing psychotectic therapy and having all elements of gender eliminated can they become accepted into society again. Those of us who have these urges live secret and guarded lives. We seek each other out, always hiding, always terrified of being discovered.

A later exchange goes into greater depth about “psychotectic treatment” which is in Genoi society, seen as a “cure” for gender:

Soren: I remember when I was very young, before I knew what I was, there was a rumour in my school that one of the students preferred a gender, in that case, male. The children started making fun of him, and every day they were more cruel They could tell he was afraid and somehow that seemed to encourage them. One morning in class, he appeared, bleeding and in ripped clothes. He said he had fallen down. And of course the school authorities found out and took him away, and gave him psychotectic treatments. When he came back, he stood in front of the whole school and told us how happy he was now that he had been cured. After that, I realised how dangerous it was to be different. And once I got older, and knew what I was, I was terrified. I have had to live with that fear ever since.

Riker: Do you have relationships with others?

Soren: Yes, with those who have discovered they are male. I have had to live a life of pretence and lies, but with you I can be honest. Please, don't say anything. Just think about it.

Soren’s relationship with Riker is discovered after they are observed kissing, and Soren is put on trial. This is the impassioned speech made at the trial and it is wonderful.

Soren: I am tired of lies. I am female. I was born that way. I have had those feelings, those longings, all of my life. It is not unnatural. I am not sick because I feel this way. I do not need to be helped. I do not need to be cured. What I need, and what all of those who are like me need, is your understanding and your compassion. We have not injured you in any way. And yet, we are scorned and attacked. And all because we are different. What we do is no different from what you do. We talk and laugh. We complain about work and we wonder about growing old. We talk about our families, and we worry about the future. And we cry with each other when things seem hopeless. All of the loving things that you do with each other, that is what we do. And for that we are called misfits and deviants and criminals. What right do you have to punish us? What right do you have to change us? What makes you think you can dictate how people love each other?

Unfortunately it falls on deaf ears, and Noor, the judge, sees this as sickness speaking, which needs to be cured.

Noor: I congratulate you, Soren. Your decision to admit your perversion makes it much more likely that we can help you.

Riker: Wait, wait, wait. You don't have to do this.

Noor: Commander?

Riker: Let me take her with me. She can go back to the Enterprise. We would give her asylum. You would never have to see her again. That would solve the problem, wouldn't it? You'd be rid of her. She would never be able to influence anyone again.

Noor: Commander, after Soren's diatribe, you must think that we are a cruel, repressive people. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Riker: I'm just trying to find a solution that would satisfy everyone.

Noor: We are concerned about our citizens. We take our obligations to them seriously. Soren is sick, and sick people want to get well.

Riker: Did it occur to you that she might like to stay the way she is?

Noor: You don't understand. We have a very high success rate in treating deviants like this. And without exception, they become happier people after their treatment, and grateful that we care enough to cure them. You see, Commander, on this world, everyone wants to be normal.

Riker: She is.

"The Outcast" is, on one level, a treatise about how horrifying it is when a culture decides a certain portion of its population is "sick" and takes steps to punish them for being outside the norm.

Specifically, it's about how the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered are often badly treated by the so-called mainstream, viewed as unhealthy abberations that are "sick" and need to be "cured" through psychological conditioning.

Sadly there are still those who regard members of the LGBT community as somehow disordered, and who should, as in some countries be imprisoned or killed, or just as bad in some ways, “cured” of their affliction.

There is no happy ending for Riker. By the time he returns with a rescue party, Soren has been “cured”. It is perhaps a reflection of how there are not always happy endings, and the struggle for acceptance and tolerance is something that still needs to continue, as long as there is intolerance and a desire to stamp out that which is seen as threatening.