Agreed. People should dislike modern Star Trek for it’s bad writing, not because it’s progressive.

The best progressive writing Trek did was when they addressed a social issue by having the actors pretend it wasn’t an issue at all.

Uhura was a bridge officer who was a black woman, and nobody cared or even noticed because in-universe there was nothing special about that.

I like how in Discovery a character came out as non-binary and everyone is like “ok cool” and that was that and it was never brought up again (because why would it be)?

You can tell by the absolute meltdown conservative spaces had about that five second clip that it was absolutely the right thing to do.

It got there, sure, but that coming out was a bit rough, because they treated it as a “big deal”, they were afraid of coming out and ultimately did, but seemed to harbor anxiety that should have not had a place anymore. They got over it (I assume, I actually kind of lost track of Discovery), but at one point it was too big a deal.

Also, out of universe, they were a bit annoying about bragging about being the first non-binary representation in Star Trek ever, which just seems disrepectful of the times it came up before.

I don’t believe any of this is supported by what we saw on screen. Do you have evidence to support these claims? Even just a single line of dialogue for each claim would be helpful.

I’d have to rewatch, but I recall as they picked Adira up from 32nd century Earth, despite being a fully grown up person, went by feminine pronouns. Adira had to work up to come out, rather than being out from the onset.

I recall because I was very confused on Adira’s introduction because they kept yelling from the rooftops about how progressive they were by having a non-binary character, but Adira and everyone around Adira kept using feminine terms. I distinctly recall a ‘coming out’ moment which seemed to be played with trepidation.

The fairest thing I could say is that 32nd century earth was no longer “federation” and so maybe they had a big old conservative backslide and so Adira’s plight was due to the gloomy setting of isolated Earth with the loss of FTL travel.

Nothing from the show itself? A transcript or youtube clip?

Ugh, fine.

“Adira, who joined us from Earth, may be able to guide sto Federation headquarters one she regains her own memoris”

“Is there any way the symbiont was joined with Adira against her will?”

Basically, Adira spends episodes 3 through 8 rolling with feminine pronouns, keeping their non-binary nature a secret.

Adira doesn’t come out until Episode 8: ADIRA: Um, “they.” Not… not “she.” I’ve never felt like a “she” or or a “her,” so… I would prefer “they” or “them” from now on.

STAMETS: Okay.

ADIRA: Um, and I’ve never told anyone but Gray.

Adira kept their non-binary identity secret and took them 5 episodes to work up the nerve to declare to the first person other than Gray. I think the traditional trek move would have been from episode 3, right out the gate, first reference to this new character would use non-gendered pronouns because, well, why would they feel they need to keep it a secret?

Where is it reflected in canon that Adira was “afraid” to come out, keeping their gender a “secret”, or otherwise had to “work up courage”?

Again, just a single line of dialogue or anything from the show that illustrates that the topic was covered more than that scene I linked to in my initial comment.