SyFy Promises Gayer Future

Smarting from GLAAD's "F" rating over their lack of LGBT characters, a SyFy Channel vice president has revealed that several characters in two new series will be gay.

"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," he says. ER alum Ming-Na plays intergalactic diplomat Camille Wray, while 24's Reiko Aylesworth recurs as her wife. Similarly the Galactica prequel spin-off Caprica has at least two main characters depicted as being in gay relationships. "[One] 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." The other aformentioned Caprica character is part of a communal marriage featuring "heterosexual as well as homosexual couplings." In both the SGU and Caprica examples, the character's sexuality is merely one facet of who they are, says Stern.

Stern says the characters' gayness will be "naturalistic," with no commentary necessary about their sexuality.