@Redlotus Oh I cant? I have a disability, as a side effect of this disability I have a speech impediment. Because of this speech impediment I’ve been treated differently my entire life, like I’m less of a person. I’ve been made fun of, ridiculed, excluded, and basically emotionally tortured. Did I chose to be this way? No its just the way I am. Now, would it be important to me if someone decided to make a huge thing out of a main character on a TV show having a speech impediment? No not really, why? I want to be treated NORMALLY not given special treatment.

In short, you don’t know me or what I’ve been though, so please don’t make assumptions about me.

Oh my… Only in America!

You have a long way to go in accepting people who are ‘different’ than the majority.

I find some comments about being gay abysmal.

Saddening.

I think it’s great and long overdue that a gay relationship is aknowledged on a Stargate TV series.

Kudos to redlotus

Also now that to further illustrate my point, when Adrian Conrad first appeared on SG-1 he was in a wheelchair did we see “SG-1 has disabled people” NO he was treated as just another character. Having a news headline “SGU has gay characters” is special treatment pure and simple.

Hi everybody!

Gay =/= physically disabled, mentally disabled, black, religious, young, old, etc.

You cannot put the two things on the same wavelength. Please don’t compare them. Thank you.

For those who do not like the idea of seeing human relationships on Stargate, I have some bad news. Right from the beginning, there was absolutely no mystery about it. Stargate Universe IS focusing on the human element. They never stated otherwise so there should be no confusion. If you are not interested in the characters and their interaction with one another, begone! This show will not change, its already filming.

@Vladius Sure I can. People with disabilities get treated unfairly all the time, as have black people in the past. To put the fact that SGU has gay characters in the spotlight simply for being gay while not pointing out any other minorities or people that get unfair treatment is special attention. Even with religion, Jews, Christians, atheists, or any other “religion”(or lack there of) is being given unfair treatment(and in a lot of cases denied legal rights) at least some where in the world.

@Morticae I agree with @Vyse99 that we if we don’t like something we have a right to talk about it, if we don’t then they will think everyone likes it then they will continue if we wine and bitch about it then they will make more SG1 movies for us and maybe even another season for us.
I don’t think ‘fans’ of the show should be hung out to dry for a new show that we do not like.
If they we’re making this new show for the ‘fans’ then they would realize that fans are people who like a show and are fanatical about it and that if you are really fanatical about a show you wouldn’t want a thing about it to be change.
So sorry Morticae but I want a show like SG1 which is not character based and if I make enough noise then someone might notice realize there is a market for a show like that and make it.
So I shall use my right of freedom of speech to whine as much as I like thank you very much.

@Vyse99, Sure, you can draw parallels, but they really aren’t the same thing. Loook at how you phrased your comment – black people have been treated unfairly “in the past” (yes, they still are by some people), and when you talk about religion and being denied rights, you are talking about “somewhere in the world,” not the US or Canada.

There are laws to PROTECT people with religious differences, diasbilities, and minority ethnicities from discrimination. On the other hand, people actively lobby to put laws into place that LIMIT the rights of LBGT people. Public schools are legally required to be ADA accessible – but there’s nothing saying that a transgendered student has the right to a non-gender specific restroom. There are no laws saying that two people can’t get married because they are of differing abilities, or different races. In the state I live in, it would be considered a hate crime if someone were to assault a person simply for being Hispanic, or Muslim. If they beat me for being gay, it’s just assault, and has a much lesser penalty under the law. I could go on and on, but I won’t because this isn’t the place.

Like I said before, sure, there are ignorant jerks who will be unkind about people having a disability, and people will always disagree on religion, but YOUR RIGHTS IN THIS COUNTRY ARE PROTECTED. Mine are not. The Americans with Disabilities Act was passed *19 YEARS AGO,* protecting your rights. The Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, and prohibits discrimination based on race, religion, or sex. There are NO federal laws to protect LBGT people from discrimination. In fact, both the ADA and the Federal Rehabilitation Act (while defining trassexualism as a medical condition) explicitly exclude trans people from protection under those laws. There is a huge discrepency between the rights of LGBT people in this country compared to the rights of other minorities, and while there are similar individual experiences of being picked on or rejected for something you can’t help, legally speaking you are protected.

The “special rights” or “special attention” argument has been a battle cry for those working against LGBT rights for a long time, when in fact all we want is equality like anyone else. Yes, you’re focusing on the fact that one website posted one tiny headline and pointed out one gay character as being “special attention”, not legal rights in general. But when you’ve been hit over the head with that argument in relation to your civil rights over and over again, it begins to take on an insulting and upsetting meaning. And I think that it seems pretty clear that you do have some sort of problem with LGBT people/lifestyles. Your last comment says “if there is something I don’t like [in] a show…” implying that you don’t like that there is a gay character included, and not just the “attention” given to it.

The news is going to report on whatever people are going to be interested in hearing, regardless of how balanced that news is. It’s a fact of life, and I sugest you try to get used to it, or you’ll spend your life being frustrated and angry.

With the casting of Robert Carlisle I was actually starting to come around to this after the 90210 in Space rap. With endless cameos by Stargate actors and now this it’s back on the I don’t care list again.

@Redlotus What do laws have to do with being given special attention on a TV show’s site? I mean do you think gay people deserve special attention on a TV show(and a site about the show) because you think they are misrepresented legally? In any event there are more forms of discrimination around then those covered by the law. Growing up I’ve been picked on and rejected myself a lot for something that I couldn’t control, was I protected? No it was just my word against theirs. If I said anything about it at all to authority figures such as teachers, the picking on just got worse and worse.

Also I wasn’t implying anything of the sort when I said if I don’t like something I’ll speak out about it, I was referring to the relationship focus of the show just like I clearly stated earlier, not specially gay and lesbian relationships. Again stop assuming things, this is the second time you’ve done it, and frankly it gets tiring when people look for persecution in places that it doesn’t exist.

And spend my life being angry and frustrated? I have too much going for me to have my life be consumed by “anger and frustration” over a TV show.

@vyse99, You brought up legal rights in your previous post, so I was responding to that. You also made a statement that being gay and being disabled or of an ethnic minority were comparable in terms of the way society treats you and the way you are discriminated against, and I was attempting to point out the major differences. Those differences play a part in why GW decided to post a story about a gay character, but did not make a headline out of having a black character etc. You will also notice that I made a point of aknowledging that discrimination occurs in many ways, and that the law does not always protect people. The point being that if you are LGBT in this country, you put up with that sort of discrimination (being picked on, called names, not protected by authority, etc) but LBGT people also have the added burden of not being protected on a larger legal scale.

But again we are straying off-topic here, and it’s becoming clear that we have very different views on this subject. I don’t want this to dissolve into knit-picking and argument, so perhaps we should just agree to disagree.

At any rate, I am glad to see gay people represented in SGU, and Sci Fi in general, and I applaud the producers and writers for deciding to go forward with it despite knowing that it would not be a popular desicion with some. I’m really looking forward to SGU (even before this news “came out.” :) and I’m hoping that once it airs and people give it a chance, they’ll enjoy it. I at least implore people to give it a chance before condeming it completely. At best, I think some people might be pleasantly surprised. At worst, you’ve given up an hour. Not such a bad gamble.

Gosh, I can’t believe I’m commenting twice on this but you people are so unreal. TORCHWOOD handles gay just fine thank you. In REAL life the actor who plays Jack is GAY and the fun way in which he portrays it on the screen makes the whole thing disarming and honest. He doesn’t flaunt nor does he hide. Again, more people in this world have died due to your religions and that my dear people is what should make you sick! How you treat others is how I would define a person, certainly not his/her sexuality. STARGATE is just reflecting the diversity in the Universe. You that mention disgust, look in the mirror.