Homosexuals in Star Wars

mark hamill has said in the past that people should interpret luke's sexuality however they please, so i believe that's entirely up to each individual's opinion! (source) i personally headcanon him as bisexual.

as for a general sense, i think its way overdue to have canon gay characters, especially in the movies but also for any other canon star wars media. poe & finn had great chemistry and i'd love to see that go somewhere. personally, as an individual who identifies as a lesbian, it would mean the world to me to see a character who is similar to me in terms of sexuality be canon in more mainstream star wars media. it gets extremely tiring to see character after character be identified as heterosexual, especially in this massive universe with so much potential for diversity.

 

Absolutely! It's way overdue and I think SW should be a force for promoting diversity.

 

I'm glad Mark said that. Luke's sexuality isn't really all that important- so, if you think he might be gay, why not? If you think he could be straight, that's possible too!

It's important for people to have role models that they can relate to. Gay kids who are Star Wars fans are long overdue for a homosexual hero.

 

Personally I think Lando tried a little too hard to hit on Leia and then the cape and his Lobot....

 

Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't want to turn this into some sort of "Gay Witch Hunt" either. It's a funny idea, but arguing that a certain character might be gay because they have some stereotypical gay characteristics can be kind of damaging for people, too.

 

For sure. But let's not that prevent funny jokes.

 

awesome, thanks! i haven't read the aftermath books but i've been meaning to, hopefully i can get around to it in the summer. i'll definitely take a look at those characters in the meantime though

 

As I am bisexual myself I'd totally love to see me represented in my favorite movies, clearly I hope finn and poe will end up together in someway!!
But something I wanna address is Chirrut and Baze in R1 because woooow they seemed like a married couple, and I think it was really intended to be that way!! How do you guys see it with Baze x Chirrut??

 

i would definitely agree that it seemed like there was some romance between them and they acted a lot like a married couple, even down to the little quarrels it would've been nice to have it been actually confirmed that they were together in a romantic sense for the sake of representation. unfortunately i've seen a lot of comments saying that they're just "bros", which seems more to me like people being uncomfortable with the fact that they could be gay and trying to deflect the idea. has anyone seen any comments made by the producers of rogue one on their relationship?

 

Nothing about Poe/Finn or Baze/Chirrut came off to me that way, strictly from what we see on film.

I think they were written as close friends who were the last each other had. No more Guardians, no more temples, no families (that we know of)...they had each other and that was that.

Now if Edwards and Co. come out and say they were a couple, that's fine too. But in the movie there is nothing there to me.

This also brings up an issue I have with fan-forced homosexuality between leads in movies.
It's hard for men in the real world to deal with emotions and such because any time there's a character in a movie who is open and shares a bond with a male friend they are automatically painted as a gay couple. Even when they are explicit not. This does two things:
One, it makes it seem like if you are a straight man and you are open about feelings, you are actually gay. It reaffirms that "real" men shouldn't have feelings or whatever.
Two, it kind of lessens the value of actual gay characters. Who needs out gay characters when you can just take two leads and make them a couple because reasons....

I get Baze and Chirrut questions. But the Poe and Finn stuff just seems like fantasy on par with slave Leia showing Rey a thing or two.

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 6, 2017, Original Post Date: Jan 6, 2017 ---

Or maybe, and this is just a maybe, they are indeed two close male friends who are not gay...

Most people I know don't care, I sure as hell don't. But trying to say it's deflection because they didn't see it that way or have had that sort of friendship themselves is...not fair to them.

 

or maybe people who are LGBT have little to no representation in media and therefore would really like to view them in that manner, as there was clearly the potential in their interactions. it's really tiring to see constant heterosexuality in film, books, etc when you literally cannot relate to that and it makes you feel like an outcast and your sexuality isn't deemed important or worthwhile to even consider. representation matters to people, a lot.

 

There's a difference between it just not happening YET and just being forced because you want it to be.
Abrams said there will be gay characters in the SW universe.
Maybe it is Baze and Chirrut. We do not know yet. But

And you are implying an awful lot there. You are confirming that two men cannot be tightly bonded without it being perceived as gay. Which, I think does a disservice to both gay and straight men. It paints gay men as overly affectionate and straight men as incapable of having emotions.

No one has suggested that or even remotely come close to that...and there are PLENTY of books, films and such with great gay leads and supports.

If his lack of homosexuality prevents you from relating to Han Solo in any way...then that might be more about you than the way he was written.
Maybe there's a ton of gay characters, we just don't know it yet.
It's never been an issue or even discussed outside of 4 characters really.
Maybe Gen Dodonna is gay.

 

as for the first part-- i never said any of that, nor implied it. two men can have a good friendship, which is represented in endless amounts of popular media. straight men are more than able to express their emotions with their friends, and there are plenty of gay men who aren't extremely affectionate. the idea that straight men are emotionless is an issue with masculinity culture, which can be delved into a lot further than was the point of this thread. when straight men feel that they cannot be affectionate, that is most likely due to the fact that they either don't want to be perceived as gay, or fear that their sense of masculinity is being threatened.

as for the second part, where? as was said earlier in response to one of my posts, there was a very very short list of homosexual characters in star wars. most of which were only by observation and hinting. this is why people have various ideas for the sexualities of characters, because we have little to no representation of LGBT characters in star wars, not to mention pop culture as a whole. everything is massively heterosexual, which is why people would like to perceive chirrut and baze or poe and finn as couples. people like to see themselves represented in media, whether its sexuality, race, or any other minority group.

all we can do is say "maybe these people are gay, maybe i am represented in a form of media i really enjoy" and that's all we have. it sucks, and it would mean the world to a lot of people to see an actual confirmed gay character in popular star wars media.

 

Your first post was essentially saying they have to be gay because they were close.
"i would definitely agree that it seemed like there was some romance between them and they acted a lot like a married couple, even down to the little quarrels it would've been nice to have it been actually confirmed that they were together in a romantic sense for the sake of representation."

I have no problem with saying maybe, but the implications here are more or less that they have to be simply because they are close.

But why Finn and Poe? Finn clearly has it for Rey.

I understand wanting to see yourself in these situations. I get that. But I just disagree with the reasoning behind Finn/Poe and Baze/Chirrut.
Same when I see people saying Captain America and Winter Solider must be gay because they're close.

Again, I want diversity in SW characters, I'm on the record as saying this. But I want them to be real characters. Like I said, if Edwards says Baze and Chirrut are gay, then fine. I'm happy for it.

But the notion as to why people are saying they are is why I take issue.

 

NASTY!

--- Double Post Merged, Jan 6, 2017, Original Post Date: Jan 6, 2017 ---

OH HELL NAW!

 

still never said that? seeing as how i said "seemed" and "would be nice" it's very clear that i'm stating that there was the potential for romance between the two of them, not that it was necessary or the only option.

no one is saying "they MUST be gay" just because they have a close relationship. when people see that there is a bond between two people, it can be viewed as platonic or romantic-- and for those who don't see their sexuality represented in pop media, it's nice to view it as romantic to feel some sort of representation where there is little to none confirmed gay characters. as for Finn and Poe, they didn't get much screen time together as Finn and Rey did due to Poe being missing for most of the story line of Episode VII. for the times they were together, they seemed to really enjoy being with each other. Maybe Finn is bisexual-- we don't know. There is the potential for a relationship, and that is what many people in the LGBT community see as potential for representation. hence the various pieces of fanart, fanfiction, etc of a Finn/Poe or Baze/Chirrut relationship. there's a foundation to build off of and it's nice to create LGBT representation that has a legitimate foundation in the actual canon media.

i want them to be real characters too. but as for right now-- we have little to none, which is why people have headcanons for sexualities of characters. any potential LGBT confirmation has mainly been "left up to viewers" to interpret, including Baze and Chirrut (source). it would be a lot nicer to have actual confirmed gay characters, which from what i understand, you agree with. but when we don't have that, we're left with interpretations and wishful thinking.

 

I am on the same page. I don't homosexuality has a place in the Star Wars universe. They have a war going on all the time. They don't need to deal with social issues of today's world. Let's just have fun, whip out your lightsaber, crack a joke here and there, shoot some Stormtroopers, and fly an X-Wing.
Personally regarding shipping Poe/Finn, I think in the end that Poe will end up with Rey. But that's my guess.
And Chirrut/Baze could just two good old friends who've grown up together. Let's leave the homosexuality stuff up to the viewer's imagination.
That's all I'm saying.

 

Yes, it adds to good storytelling. Some believe that gay characters are out of place in SW, but it's the other way around. We're talking about a galaxy that is populated by....millions of species? I'm not sure, but I know they're many, and that romantic relationships between members of different species are very common. So why is it alright to have interspecies relationships but not gay relationships? I'm willing to bet that gay relationships are much common than interspecies. And it would be odd to never see them on screen. People like to look at this issue in the context of our political climate, but that shouldn't be taken into consideration when we're talking about a galaxy far far away. The fact of the matter is that not having any gays feels FORCED when we know for sure that all kinds of relationships are possible in SW. This is not an issue of representation or other political agendas, it's common sense and an accurate portrayal of the SW universe.