Wow, they blew me away again! Once again, Star Trek has disarmed me, maybe even blown me away. As though the Deep Space Nine episode Rejoined wasn’t enough, Star Trek The Next Generation brings us the episode called “The Outcast”, based on the J’naii people. They are a world of androgynous persons, in which it is a CRIME to be treated medically if you find yourself to identify with a gender. Ring a few bells? Well, it certainly touches upon many topics, and brings many thoughts. For the people who DO feel they are a particular gender, is it possible in their world to be born biologically a certain gender, but on top of that, as we earthlings have here, find yourself to identify with the gender you are not biologically? It is explained that at one time, their culture had 2 genders, but they “evolved”, and gender ceased to exist. Clearly, these people ARE born with particular sexual organs, but they make each person neither a he or a she. The episode certainly has its shortcomings. The main J’naii character, Soren, reveals that she identifies as female, and is attracted to males. So, sadly, most likely, if someone as myself came along, and told her that as a human I was born biologically female but am male in many ways, she would still most likely reject me. So, the storyline, in trying to be progressive, still falls short, but you must forgive it, given the era it was born of. In the end, after falling in love with Commander Riker, she is “treated”, and the episode ends with all her life struggles having meant nothing to her; the struggle to hide who she was, etc. She simply says, “I was wrong. I can’t believe I ever felt those things.”. You see, when you have a certain inclination, and then have a different one, you simply are who you are; you don’t want anything else other than what you desire at that time. You can switch back and forth a million times, and always want only what THAT way of being that you are in a given time, wants. At least on their planet, “treatment” seems to “work”. For people who know me who don’t understand my inclination towards a “(supposedly) male name and pronouns, in this epsiode, Dr Beverly Crusher states, when questioned by the androgynous Soren as to what it is like to be female, “It’s just the way I am; I’ve never really thought about what being female means.”. You see, a person such as myself on the other hand, is hyper aware of gender, gender roles and the consequences of being a specific gender, etc. As the person I am, I wish to bring to media, television, movies, the truth of persons like myself, biologically female for example, telling a burdened, hiding judged gender-identifying character like Soren, that she too would reject me. I wish to bring characters like this to life. Thanks again, S