SyFy FAIL the GLAAD gay character trial but will get better

Science Fiction fans are probably already aware of the issue of gay characters in their favorite series and SyFy has paid the price for lack of inclusion. The channel received an fail rating in GLAAD’s recent Network Responsibility Index for their depiction of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) characters. Unlike other failing channels however, SyFy has come forward and said they are disappointed with the rating and are working on the issue.

Mark Stern – Executive VP of content – stated “We are disappointed, obviously,” Stern said of the NRI grade. “The ‘F’ is hard because we are trying, it is something that is in our vocabulary. But we need to work harder.”

Stern followed this up with examples of upcoming SyFy shows with gay characters, including Stargate: Universe and Caprica.

“On Stargate Universe, one of the main female characters, we discover, is a lesbian and has a wife at home. It’s a pretty important facet of who that character is,” This is the Ming-Na character we have mentioned before. Reiko Aylesworth plays a recurring role as her wife.

Caprica too is set to feature a gay relationship with Stern stating one of the characters is a “‘goodfella’ type, and we discover in a nonchalant way that he is gay, with a husband,” Stern says. “It was very interesting to me to take what is traditionally a very heterosexual role in an organization that we think of as being extremely homophobic, and put a gay character in that world in a very normalized way.”

Apparently the other homosexual relationship is a communal bi-sexual marriage that features a same sex partnership.

SyFy series Battlestar Galactica also featured a main bisexual character – Felix Gaeta – and his partner Lieutenant Hoshi (bisexual since he also had assumed sexual relations with female characters) though this was truly only featured properly in the webisodes that accompanied the series and touched upon briefly in the series itself.