To make the episode, Gerrold teamed up with the fan crew behind Star Trek: Phase II, a web series that's intended to be the fourth season of the original series. He dusted off his gay-themed script, called "Blood and Fire," and also directed it. Originally, "Blood and Fire" was written for Star Trek: TNG, and approved by series creator Gene Roddenberry, but executives at the network balked. Gerrold says they told him they were worried they'd lose their advertisers because "mommies" would call in to complain that they'd seen gay people on Star Trek.

For the webisode, Gerrold re-wrote the script to bring it up to date with issues like gay marriage, and also to make the characters more openly gay. In the original, they were portrayed as friends - the only hint that they were gay was one character asking them how long they'd been together. In the new version, as you can see in the clip below, there's no question that they're lovers.

The episode is about the Enterprise responding to a distress call, and dealing with scary "bloodworms." It introduces a new character, Peter Kirk, the gay nephew of the captain.

According to AfterElton's Brent Hartinger, who has seen the full episode:

There’s tension between Peter and his famous uncle, who is determined to keep him out of harm’s way, even if it means treating him differently than the other crewmembers. Eventually, Peter reveals the real reason he requested a stint on the Enterprise: to be near his boyfriend, Alex Freeman (Evan Fowler). When the couple make plans to marry, Kirk agrees to officiate, but only “after the away mission” — which may or may not bode well for the future of this relationship . . . The portrayal of Peter and Alex's romantic relationship is treated no differently than any of the dozens of heterosexual relationships the various Star Trek incarnations have included over the decades. Indeed, the storyline is incorporated so naturally as to make the “official” Trek's inexcusable lack of gay characters even more obvious.

The first half of "Blood and Fire" goes online this Saturday on the Star Trek: Phase II website. The second half airs in February.

You can see more images and a longer clip at AfterElton.

In the maelstrom of fannish squee that is the social network LiveJournal, there lurk thousands of Harry Potter fans who have taken Rowling's novels into their own hands. They write fan fiction, or fanfic, about everything from Harry's first kiss to that time Snape got busy with Draco in the potions closet. Yeah, most of these stories are about relationships, sometimes sexual and sometimes just romantic.

A longtime tradition among fanfic writers holds that a story about two characters having gay sex is called "slash." Possibly this began with the Kirk/Spock stories of the 1970s, but perhaps it began earlier in the misty fandom days of yore. Usually slash fic isn't "canon," which is to say it diverges from the novels or series the fans are writing about. If only because the characters aren't gay in the universe of the original story.

That's what made Rowling's announcement about Dumbledore so weird. Suddenly, there was canon slash, if you consider the Dumbledore/Grindelwald pairing. But a lot of fans thought the idea of writing about Dumbledore was more squick than squee. As LJ member alexis_sd wrote recently:

Sex and Dumbledore just don't mix well for me. I'd rather see him as an asexual meddlesome old man or my brain might explode.

And over on fanfic haven FictionCentral.net, a conversation thread devoted to the idea of Dumbledore/Riddle slash was greeted with a lot of skepticism and "yuck."

For other fans, however, Rowlings' outing of the meddlesome old man was a challenge. Could they make him sexy? Who would he have sex with? Obviously his boyhood friend Gellert Grindelwald, with whom he was once obsessed. Later, Grindelwald became evil but for one magic summer he and Albus shared everything - and now we know that "everything" isn't just slash. It's canon.

Other hookups that fans have imagined for Dumbledore include broody potions instructor Severus Snape, the ubiquitous Harry Potter (he's done everyone in fanficdom by now), and even the mega-evil Tom Riddle, who later became Voldemort.

With the help of ravenna_c_tan, along with several other slash experts on LJ, we've put together a starter kit of Dumbledore slashfic for you. Things are about to get a little NSFW, so hold on to your wands!

Flash and Circle
By: Ibycus
What: Dumbledore/Grindelwald/Riddle
Sample quote:

Albus stands frozen in the doorway, watching the pair of them. If either one has heard him, they give no sign. Gellert is standing just behind the boy. He seems to have forgotten that he is not alone: he gazes into the fire. Absently, he runs his fingers through the boy’s hair. The boy shivers, and Albus can see his intertwined fingers clench hard, just for a moment, before he relaxes.

Gellert leans over the boy, whispers something in his ear that makes the boy whimper and wriggle, and Gellert laughs softly. His laugh is a rich, warm chuckle, and as always it makes Albus’s skin prickle. He watches as Gellert curls around the boy, stroking his chest – the boy gives a stifled gasp when Gellert’s clever fingers twist and pinch – and kissing his face.

At last Gellert rises, his robes brushing against the boy’s bare shoulder, the curve of his back, and turns to look at Albus.

“Look,” he says, and holds out his hand. “Albus, look. I’ve found us a toy.”

Limbo
By: Titti
What: Dumbledore/Snape
Sample quote:

You look at him questioningly, hoping that he'll volunteer something, because you've learned through the years, that no amount of prodding will overcome this particular tone, the one reserved for fumbling first years (and reckless lovers, Severus likes to add). "As you wish," you finally say, but he only snorts in response.

You lie next to him, and you begin to explore his body with meticulous precision. Your time with him is so precious that you don't wish to miss any detail.

He looks at you with a mixture of lust and curiosity, and you still don't understand, but then a jolt of… something… you can't even describe the sensation of lust, desire and pain that gushes through your fibres.

He brushes your hair. "It's the potion," he says calmly. "Don't fight it, and you'll feel fine soon enough."

You should be upset, but this is Severus, your own scheming snake, and you trust him not to hurt you.

"This should make it easier." His lips are on yours before you can ask what will make it easier.

Your kisses are normally languid preludes to nights spent together, but tonight nothing is as it should be. Another jolt assaults you, and the taste of his lips isn't enough.

You push him onto his back, pinning him to the mattress with raw magic as your tongue thrusts inside his mouth. You expect him to summon his wand, to defend himself from this unauthorised use of magic. Instead, he lies there, legs spreading to give you more room.

For Blood and Wine Are Red
By: Penknife
What: Dumbledore/Grindelwald
Sample quote:

The scones were burnt. It suddenly seemed intolerable; no matter what he did, the house seemed to be full of shabby, dirty, ruined things. Gellert toyed with his scones, giving Albus ambiguous glances over his teacup. Aberforth munched in silence, and Bathilda told a long story about the problems she'd been having with her drains.

"We really should be going," Bathilda said after what seemed like an eternity. "It's a pity we couldn't see poor Ariana."

"I'm sure she'll be desolated to have missed you," Albus said. "But she's been terribly weak today, and I didn't want to ask her to dress for company."

Gellert met his eyes in a question, and Albus didn't return to contemplating the convolvulus teapot. Yes, that's a lie.

"I'll come by to look at the books," Gellert said.

"Feel free," Albus said, and wondered if Gellert knew how his heart raced at the words.

P,Q, R, S
By: Panjianlien
What: Star Trek/Potterverse/Red Dwarf - this is a cross-universe story where Jean Luc Picard has sex with Harry Potter and Dumbledore while in the body of Severus Snape. So incredibly complicated and wonderful that it must be read.
Sample quote:

“Easy there,” Jean-Luc murmured, his fingers splaying out against the lightly stubbled cheek.

Stubble? Picard groaned inwardly and kept his eyes shut tight. It was worse than he thought. He hadn’t just gone to bed and not remembered it. He’d gone to the holodeck and not remembered it. Damn. The Captain of the Enterprise shouldn’t be doing that. The captain of a child’s tub toy shouldn’t be doing that.

All right. He admitted it. He really did need a vacation. He would even tell Beverly. And he wouldn't put it off any longer. Ignoring the soft-haired head now resting peacefully on his belly, willfully pushing away the sensation of the broad, warm palm that still cupped his empty balls, Jean-Luc took a deep breath.

“Computer, end program.”

The head shifted position slightly as its owner sighed. “If you want me to go, just say so, Severus. You don’t have to go invoking Muggle cultural references.”

Stargate Atlantis producer Joseph Mallozzi took to his blog to write about the "What Ifs" of SGA including the queer love square they never followed through with, and which character is still in the closet to fans.

According to him, Captain Alicia Vega (played by the gorgeous Leela Savasta) was supposed to be a vying for the affections of Dr. Keller (Jewel Staite) along with Rodney McKay and Ronon, thus turning that incredibly cold love triangle into a love square. (Love rhombus?) But alas, the scene where Vega asked Keller out on a date was cut from the "Search And Rescue" episode this season. Sadly, we'll never get to know this adorable supposed lesbian because she was unfairly slain in "Whispers" by one of Michael's test subjects.

From Mallozzi's blog:

The character of Alicia Vega, meanwhile, did offer an opening that an established character did not: she was new and the final scene of the season five premiere felt neither forced nor insignificant. Of course, as Paul pointed out: “Do we really want to make this love triangle a love rectangle?”. Well, again, the decision was made for us when the episode ran waaaay too long and a good portion of Vega’s scenes, including the last one, had to be cut for time.

It's sad to think that Vega could have had a fun side story, but instead she was killed. Still you never know, because NO ONE DIES ON STARGATE. She could be back, and gayer than ever. Oh, Mallozzi — you should have gone through with it. I would have applauded the effort, and it would have brought in more character development, something SGA can always use more of.

But wait, there's more under the big rainbow of SGA. Another character on the show is secretly gay, and we'll probably never find out who he is. Here's a hint from Mallozzi:

The prospect of introducing a gay character to the Stargate universe was always an interesting possibility, but one that would require the right circumstances. In fact, for several years now, there has been one recurring character who, in my mind, is gay, but there has never been an opportunity to confirm the fact. While I feared that suggesting it in a throw-away (“I’m heading back to Earth to spend time with my boyfriend. See ya!”) would seem like a truly forced WTF moment for fans, alternately, making a big deal of it felt wrong as well. So, unless the right circumstances present themselves for this character, the fans can simply go ahead assuming he is heterosexual until such a time that, in a Rowlingesque postscript, I can add: “And, oh yeah, by the way - he was gay.”

Okay, so it's Lorne — at least I think it is, why because I always knew there was more to him than just that guy standing there. Or maybe I just wish it was Lorne, cause he's far too pretty compared to the rest of the crew, and even though I think he had a thing for Teyla, it seemed forced.

You can tell that this was the type of character that the writers always thought they were going to do more with but couldn't find the time. Now we'll never know who it is until more details come out, and I know the final episodes are in the can. But I could always do with more Lorne. A few other sites threw out Chuck the technician and Radek Zelenka, but my money is on Major Lorne. Zelenka is another good call, as I know nothing about the man's back story but it would be a bit jarring for both Z and L to just off handedly mention that they have a boyfriend. So while I agree that they couldn't just toss it in there, I wish they'd at least tried.

Now that all of this is coming out, I feel the need to say: Kinda lame, guys. You know I love Stargate,, but this Monday quarterbacking a dead show is a little frustrating. Cool that one character had a gay love storyline that was actually shot, but to make another recurring character gay off-camera is kind of disappointing. Also, didn't J.K. Rowling already play this card?

[Joseph Mallozzi via Gateworld]

As I mentioned in my review, one of the odd things about Death Race is the fact that Tyrese Gibson's character, Machine Gun Joe, is referred to as gay several times by various characters. There's even an odd moment of gay innuendo between Jason Statham and Gibson at the end of the movie, which gets defused at the last moment. Gibson insisted in an interview that his character isn't actually gay, but the film certainly pushes the idea pretty hard. (I'm wondering if there's a deleted scene where this gets addressed?)

In any case, AfterElton.com, a site that critiques mass media from a gay perspective, has hailed the movie as a major step forward because "We have an actual gay character whose sexuality isn't the focal point of who he is, and is treated matter-of-factly." But most of all, AfterElton hails Gibson's character because "The gay guy survives! That's right, a gay character in a an action film survives, along with the hero. Of course, he has to take out a few dozen people along the way, but the movie is called Death Race, not Happy Puppies Frolicking."

[AfterElton]

Battlestar Galactica
Even though Quiznos is the official sponsor of lesbianism on BSG, which is kind of gross, nobody could watch Six and D'Anna in bed with Baltar without wanting to kick old sweaty-pants out and see our two lovely cylons get busy.

The Man Who Folded Himself, by David Gerrold
Gerrold is the author of the "Trouble with Tribbles" episode of Star Trek, and later he quit ST: TNG in a huff because the show runners had promised him repeatedly that they'd do a gay character but never came through. Instead we got that lame "planet of one gender" episode where the outcasts were people who wanted to make it with an opposite-gendered person. Lame! Anyway, Gerrold wrote this great novel in the early 1970s about a guy who travels though time and eventually meets so many of his alternate selves that they have an orgy. Funny and zippy, this book might make you say, "Hmm . . . is it really gay love if it's with myself?"

Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith
Planet of tough lesbians, packed with cool fight scenes and tribal war and desperate journeys and parthenogenesis. It's every girl's dream.

Liquid Sky A weird 1980s New Wave movie set in Los Angeles, this tale of bisexual artist/fashion models making the club scene is surreal and bizarro and sexy as hell. An androgynous lovely discovers she's being followed by aliens in a tiny spaceship who want to eat people during orgasm. Which for some reason pleases our hero, so she goes around having sex with lots of boys and girls just to watch them disappear when they come. Weird and pretty, this movie is a 10 on the "make you queer" scale.

Zerophilia
A bit of a mess script-wise, Zerophilia nevertheless wins for sheer plucky cuteness. A mutant discovers that he possesses the strange "Z chromosome" which allows him to switch genders when he has an orgasm. But then he's stuck as that gender until he can have sex with another Z. Or something. The point is there are a lot of cute people having gender-bendy sex and doing lots of running around and being pouty-grumpy about their gender-transcending natures. Even though the plot has gaping holes, it will still make you wish you could switch from an innie to an outie once in a while — and then go back again.

Socket
Gay boys get addicted to electricity, and install sockets in their arms so they can plug into each other better. No really, it's hot.

Runaways, by Brian K. Vaughan and Joss Whedon
In this comic book about a team of teen superheroes, Karolina is a lesbian alien with superpowers thrust into an unwanted, arranged betrothal to Xavin the Skrull. When Xavin falls in love with Karolina, he uses his shape-shifter powers to turn into a cute girl. Yay for shape-shifty, tranny lesbian love! OMG srsly awesome as ponies no joke.

Fledgling, by Octavia Butler
This tale of a polyamorous, bisexual mutant/vampire re-discovering her powers after a catastrophic accident is pretty much the most awesome bit of erotic non-erotica ever written. Sadly, Butler died before she was able to write the sequels to this book. Still, just reading about the sexy relationships our heroine creates will make you wonder if maybe going both ways is the right way.

The Man Who Fell To Earth
In this crazy-ass David Bowie flick, there are no queer scenes at all. But Bowie, as an alien who comes to Earth seeking a way to bring water back to his parched planet, manages to make straight sex look somehow queer. He tries to raise a bunch of money by selling alien technology, and then spend that money building a ship that will take him home. Sadly, his plans are derailed and he falls into a life of debauched 1970s sex and alcohol with a lady friend who is only marginally more feminine than Bowie. Which is awesome, thanks.

Enemy Mine
Maybe it's just man-love, or maybe it's kinda gay, but the very intense both that develops between genderless alien Louis Gossett Jr. and macho dude Dennis Quaid on an alien world is definitely full of sparks. Especially when Gossett gets pregnant and Quaid has to protect him and the baby. This movie makes it seem cool for men to "marry" each other, even if they aren't into each other THAT way.

Hey, Happy
A Canadian prairie boy triggers the apocalypse with his lust, and somehow decides that sleeping with 2,000 guys will fix things? I'm confused by the plot, but amused by the boppy surrealism of this sweet homage to apocalyptic teen lust.

Torchwood
This all-bisexual, all-the-time spinoff of Doctor Who has basically been two seasons of the immortal Captain Jack (briefly the Doctor's companion) leading the secret alien-tracking group Torchwood into sex romps in Wales. Queer sex romps. With aliens, or sometimes cross-temporal beings. Come for the sex, try to ignore the awful plotlines, and stay for the sex. It will not only turn you a little queer, it will make you want to go to Cardiff. Which is really perverted.

Orlando
Scaldingly hot Tilda Swinton plays the title character in this adaptation of the time-traveling, gender-bending novel by Virginia Woolfe. Orlando starts out a snotty boy during Queen Elizabeth's reign, mistreats his lady lovers horribly, and grows into a misogynist prick in the 18th Century. Then, abruptly, he turns into a woman. Who has to deal with misogyny, sexual awakening, and war throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Swinton plays boy half and girl half with sexy aplomb, and will definitely tempt you into a little tranny-chasing.

Left Hand of Darkness, by Ursula Le Guin
This is Le Guin's classic gender-bender, homo-sorta novel of the late 1960s. A lone emissary comes to study the society on a planet where nobody has a gender. They go into "kemmer" or heat once in a while and take on gendered characteristics in order to mate. When the emissary gets stuck on a dangerous mission with one of the natives, who suddenly goes from seemingly male into a kemmering female, our hero has to confront his confused feelings about gender and sex. More sociological than sexy, the book will definitely force you to question your assumptions about gender, even if it doesn't turn you queer.

Mysterious Skin, by Scott Heim (also a great movie)
Two boys grow up together in a small Kansas town — only one becomes gay, and the other becomes convinced he's been abducted by aliens. It turns out their two stories are inextricably linked, and only when they finally meet as adults to they figure out the secret of the aliens. The book is haunting and delightful, and the movie version (with Joseph Gordon Levitt) is superb. You can't look at Levitt's broody face and not want to feel a little man-on-man with him for just a nanosecond.

First off, let's get one thing straight - While we have nothing but respect and maybe a little adoration for television's first Mr. Sulu, headlines like Wired's "Star Trek's Sulu Plans To Marry Partner" may be factually correct, but they're also kind of... dull. Headlines are meant to have grab your eye and demand your attention. So why not aim for something like Igotarant.com's "George 'Sulu, And I Take It In The Ass' Takei is getting married. Still factually correct and yet, somehow, somewhat wrong at the same time.

While I'm complaining, here's something else everyone needs to understand. George Takei? He's Mr. Sulu, okay? That's it. That's all anyone needs to know in order for the headline to work. So, all you people doing headlines like "Heroes Actor To Marry Longterm Partner" and "Heroes Star George Takei To Marry Longterm Partner Brad Altman"? No. Just stop it. Sure, he was in Heroes, but it was for about five minutes and even then it was stunt casting before he died in a cruel experiment to see if Masi Oka was able to show a third emotion other than "glee" and "comedic shock". Calling him a star of the show just seems kind of cruel, really.

With all of that out the way, let's move onto the headlines that know how to bring you up to speed. The UK's Daily Mirror goes for the less-is-more angle with "Gay Sulu to Wed", while gossip website Canoodle Soup takes a similar tack, before chickening out at the last moment: "Sulu No Longer Solo: George Takei To Wed." So close and yet so far.

Thankfully, some people are unafraid of the obvious nerd references: "Marriage: The Final Frontier" and "George Takei: Gay Marriage - The Final Frontier" go exactly where you wanted them to, but "George Takei boldly goes into marriage" and, weirdly, E! Online's "Star Trek Star Boldly Goes Where Ellen Goes" come a close second (This whole "Ellen was there first thing" seems to be a Takei wedding meme - There's also First Ellen, now George Takei... will other celeb gays follow suit? Me, I'm going to wait until Ellen gets the crazy "Naked Time" virus and then starts attacking people with a sword before I give her the credit for stuff).

The greatest headline of all, however, comes from the UK's Sun newspaper, knowing that a pun is always the way to go: Mr. Sulu will say "I do... lu", anyone?

I know, I know. You're welcome.

10. Most of the colors in Speed Racer are sparkly pastels, not the hard reds and butch "gold titanium alloy" of Iron Man. What is this? Queer Eye for the action hero?

9. Speed Racer dresses in a shiny purple suit at one point, and in a scarf at another. He wears a lot of white, and is just as pretty as Trixie, his girlfriend who drives a helicopter and repairs engines in the shop. Gender bending in an action movie not directed by Ridley "G.I. Jane" Scott? Not allowed.

8. Monkeys are gay.

7. When there's a ninja fight, Racer X pulls the ninja's pants off and we see that he's wearing big white boxers with a cute pattern on them. What kind of counter-ninja pulls off the ninja's pants? And what kind of ninja wears big white boxers?

6. One of the semi-good guys, Taejo (Rain), dresses up like a woman as part of an elaborate scheme for revenge. And he looks seriously hot in lady clothes.

5. Which reminds me of director Larry Wachowski, long rumored to be fond of lady clothes himself — or perhaps even on the road to becoming a woman. I can't believe how many people writing about Speed Racer have mentioned Larry's gender. Who the fuck cares about whether Larry is a he or a she or a bug person? Unless you are worried that this movie is too GAY for you.

4. One of the bad guys wears fake snakeskin and yells "ooohhhh!" a lot.

3. Several other bad guys are giant hairy men dressed in furs and Viking helmets. I think some of them might even have been centerfolds in Bear magazine.

2. Trixie's outfit matches her helicopter.

1. Speed loves his mother and is super-nice to his girlfriend. Obviously a homo! A true straight dude would be like Iron Man, obsessing over his dead dad and abusing every woman in his life.

I feel like most yaoi art is fantasy-oriented. Is your work more oriented towards fantasy or science fiction?

A lot of my art is ambiguous as to whether it's fantasy or sci-fi, but I think I gravitate more towards fantasy. Lately I've been doing more steampunk themed art, which I guess falls more into the sci-fi category... So the scifi vs. fantasy might even be around 50-50 at this point. I've often tried to break out of the scifi/fantasy niche and just draw something completely mundane, but I can't seem to manage it.

How big is the yaoi audience in the U.S. now? Is it as big as it is in Japan?

I won't claim to be an expert on the yaoi market. I'm pretty sure the Japanese yaoi market still far surpasses the American created/produced yaoi scene. They've just been doing it longer, and most of our popular yaoi media is imported from Japan. I think many of the bigger publishing houses are not so quick to pick up yaoi as they have been to dive into general audience manga, so that keeps the market small. It's difficult for the small presses to to make it in the business, and that's where most of our American yaoi is coming from - small presses, independant publishers, and self-publishing.

When did you get involved in yaoi art?

I discovered rather early in my teenage years that having two guys together is just hot, so when I first found yaoi on the internet (it is for porn, after all) it was like coming home. I didn't join the yaoi art scene until much later, circa 2004, but it really only coincided with graduating from college and suddenly having more time on my hands. Moving to San Francisco helped also, because that gave me my first chance to attend Yaoi-Con and meet the community in person. Having a group to share the artwork with just gave me more reasons to draw yaoi-themed art.

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.