The Outcast
Star Trek: The Next Generation - season 5, epsiode 17
When I first saw The Outcast, I was astounded that a TV show in 1992 aired such a blatant and sympathetic episode featuring a transgender character. Of course Star Trek tends to be ahead of the curve with social issues, but it was still remarkable to me. Not to imply the 1990s were a backward time, but queer representation was lacking in both quantity and quality.
Episode Summary
The episode introduces a single sex race of aliens who have no concept of gender before meeting the Enterprise crew. The crew struggles with finding a gender neutral way to refer to the aliens (if the episode were made today, I imagine they/them pronouns would have been used), and the aliens learn about human gender roles.
The discussion of said gender roles lacks critisism, the human crew presenting them as the natural way of life, rather than exposing how they can be stifling for many, and is very heteronormative. The featured alien character, Soren, asks Dr. Crusher why women paint their faces, but men don't, and Dr. Crusher replies that it is the way women attract men, and that men attract women through different ways (I forget what exactly she said). This is treated as very normal by Dr. Crusher who does not reflect on it further.
The main guest character, the alien Soren, confesses to Riker that she feels female, and that there are aliens who live in her society that have similar gender feelings, harking back to a primitive time when their species had two sexes. She tells him that aliens who do express their gender are social outcasts who risk facing violence.
Soren and Riker become romantically interested in each other, and are eventually discovered by one of the other alien characters. Soren's interest in men is treated as an indication of her female identity (heteronormativity yet again), and the aliens have a trial to determine her fate. Riker intrupts the trial to defend Soren, trying to say that she did nothing wrong and it was all him, an outsider who did not understand. Soren admits to the court her feelings, and tries to express how people like her are just like everyone else and don't need cured. The court is not swayed so Riker proposes a comprimise, taking Soren into political asylum and off their hands. Despite that, she is sentanced to conversion therapy and taken away.
The episode ends tragically, with Riker seeing Soren, and her telling him she is cured. Riker tries to convince her to come with him and that they can revert her back to having a gender, but she rejects his offer, stating she was sick and is grateful to be cured. This saddens Riker, but gives him no choice but to return to the Enterprise without Soren.
Reflection
Given Soren obviously identifying as a gender other than what she was expected to be by her whole culture, I took this episode as a clear transgender allegory. So I was suprised to learn that it was actually intended to be a gay allegory.
Considering how linked our cultural concept of gender and sexuality was in the 90s, that at least explained all the hetornormativity, why Soren's interest in men was treated as a female trait. In a way the episodes basic premise appears to be: what if gay people oppressed straight people? I imagine that they only way the writers could justify homsexuality being the dominant sexuality was to make an alien race with only one sex. So in order to make Soren heterosexual, they had to give her a gender.
Johnathan Frakes, the actor playing Riker, wanted to push the gay allegory further by having a male actor play Soren, which, although not the writers intention, would have also pushed the transgender coding of Soren futher.
Although a flawed episode in its portrayal of human gender and sexuality, I found Soren's exploration and explanation of her gender to be profoundly realistic and touching as a transgender person. Some people may not be fond of the tragic ending, or the episode focusing on the queer character's queerness, but I found both to be incredibuly cathartic, and I can only imagine how unexpectly seen trans people in the 90s felt by it. Especially considering portrayals of trans people were limited to jokes, stereotypes, sexual predators, killers, and the rare clumsy sympathetic "born in the wrong body" cliche.
Despite not believing its possible to "cure" a trans or gay person, I actually like that the writers chose to make the conversion therapy successful. I think Riker being distraught that it worked emphasized the idea that even if people could choose or be cured, there still wouldn't be anything wrong with wanting to stay trans or gay. Its remarkably poignant coming from cishet writers, when even other trans people try to discount trans people who don't want to be cis, as if it not having a choice was the only thing that justified being trans. I remember being terrified that I would be put on estrogen to cure me, and terrified that it would work.
Quotes
Riker: How long have you known you were like this?
Soren: I've known I was different all my life. But I didn't understand how or why until I was older.
Soren's statment here echos the same feelings my friends and I have had about our gender, knowing we were different when we were kids, but not quite what it was, or how to express it. This contrasts to the cis-palatable script of knowing ones gender from a very young age and persistantly expressing it (especially at the time).
I've had to live a life of pretense and lies. With you, I can be honest.
Soren tells this to Riker, evoking the closeted trans experience of preforming ones gender assigned at birth, how it is not true to ones self, and how comforting it can be to have someone you don't have to hide around.
Throught the episode Soren questions both Riker and Dr. Crusher about gender, what its like and what makes men and women different.
Soren: Doctor, you are female.
Crusher: Yes...
Soren: Forgive me, I don't mean to be rude, but I'm curious. What is it like?
Crusher: Well, it's ... just the way I am. I've never thought about what it's like.
Soren's questions remind me of trans people who are just figuring out they are trans, and asking more "established" trans people what its like to be trans. In this case its more that shes asking someone of the gender she is what its like to be that gender, feeling a kinship already, but wanting to confirm it. Dr. Crusher gives a very cis response, one that doesn't really satisfy Soren's questioning.
They continue with their conversation, uncritically discussing some very stereotypical gender roles and heteronormativity, before Soren asks this:
Soren: Do you ... enjoy being a woman?
Crusher: Yes. As a matter of fact, I enjoy it a lot.
This answer seems to satisfy Soren, confirming her identity as a woman, something that she enjoys despite her culture's taboo.
These quotes were sourced from the episode script hosted by Star Trek Minutiae. I can't guarentee complete accuracy, but I do recall many of the scenes described in the script.