Star Trek Online flame wars erupt over gay backdrop NPCs

The most recent featured episode for Star Trek Online stirred up some controversy because it’s all about gay Klingons. By which we of course mean that there’s a lesbian couple attending a fight purely as a background element without any particular attention drawn to it. Unsurprisingly, people have expressed anger at the inclusion on the game’s forums, prompting community manager LaughingTrendy to step in and point out that the couple is hardly a focal point of the episode and then step in again to keep the discussion civil rather than nasty on both sides.

The episode’s writer has opted to respond on Twitter with a simple “sorry not sorry,” so make of that what you will. Fans upset by the inclusion may wish to be reminded that while the game hasn’t shown such relationships explicitly in the past, the franchise has released several episodes over the years to establish that same-sex relationships are seen as normal and it takes extraordinary circumstances for them to be highlighted.