Major Lorne being gay is indeed wholly fanon and pure speculation on the fans’ part and thus not canon. The team member of the “Whispers” team (i.e. the all female team) said to be lesbian was Captain Alicia Vega, the same one you cited from “Search and Rescue” (the first episode of Season 5). So she wasn’t put on the bus but the one that died in “Whispers”.

In conclusion there was NO gay canon character whatsoever on SGA, seeing as Joe Mallozzi never disclosed the name of the character the writers thought to be gay and only added that they THOUGHT about making Vega a lesbian but that it got shelved in the end. Nothing of that was on screen, so nothing of it is canon, i.e. unimportant for discussion anyway.

Also I think that the “Whispers” team didn’t vanish because one of them died but because the writing for Season 5 was mediocre at best in general, not only regarding the presensation of female characters. There are a lot more issues with the writing in that Season and the disappearance of the “Whispers” team (IMHO because the writers didn’t know what to do with them in further episodes since obviously they were too busy with concentrating on Dr. Keller and her relationship with Dr. Rodney McKay… me, bitter? Never) is only one of them.

You might want to consider rewriting the part about the gay characters in your otherwise very interesting and good article.

I agree that they came up with some good female characters, i.e., Sam Carter and Dr. Frazier, but other than that they failed miserably and with intent.
Elizabeth Weir started off in Atlantis as a strong leader, but they couldn’t figure out what to do do with a character like this and she was eliminated by the end of the series in a most ungracious way. Teyla Emmagen (sp LOL) likewise was introduced as the wise leader of her people, but by series end was sidelined into a few walkon/walkoff lines. Guess they didn’t know what to do with a woman who was a mother and a warrior.
The only female on Atlantis that the writers cared to highlight was Keller, a walking cliche, the blonde hottie who the geek(McKay) finally “got.” Martin Gero, one of the writers, has actually acknowledged that he was living out his fantasies through writing for McKay, and the young, blonde always-in-peril Jennifer was a prime focus.
Yech.

Darnit! I knew I’d spelled something wrong! I’ll correct the spelling of Tayla’s name (thanks for pointing it out). I sort of disagree with you about Tayla near the end. She did get some “day in the sun” episodes in season 5 (The Queen comes immediately to mind), but other than that, yeah she had less to do once they had Ronon to do guy things with Sheppard and shoot at things.

Yeah, I wasn’t a Keller fan and didn’t think she went well with McKay, either.

That’s right, Vega got killed off. I think I’ve blocked out “Whispers”, since it’s not one of my favorite episodes. As for “canon”, as I mentioned Vega would have had that asking Keller out scene but it was cut for time. It was filmed and is on the DVD extras. Her orientation is also discussed in the commentaries. I appreciate your comments about Lorne, too. I do note in the article that that could just be rumor (which as you note, it is).

This is a good article, but have you considered that maybe after those seasons there were no women INTERESTED in writing anymore, or they couldn’t find anyone qualified enough? Why does the gender of who’s writing the show matter when both shows are some of the most pro-equality TV shows ever made? I don’t think women have anything to complain about in terms of misrepresentation on television. Maybe you should complain about the movie industry’s portrayal of women, cause that’s something that’s atrocious and needs changing.

Joseph: I have considered all of the points you make, however, though you say you “don’t think women have anything to complain about in terms of misrepresentation on television”, I–and many other women–believe we DO have something to complain about. I did not mean to imply that the writers and producers of the Stargate shows made a conscious decision not to entertain scripts written by women, or to not hire female directors. Of course they didn’t do that! Now, if you’re only talking about women being visible on TV shows, then you and I may be in agreement. You do make a very good (implied) point, though: As they say in the lottery ads “you can’t win if you don’t play”. You can’t get a writing gig on a TV show if you or your agent don’t submit a script when scripts are being solicited and then market, market, market!

Oh, and wasn’t making any complaints about the PORTRAYAL of women on Stargate. In fact, I said just the opposite. Stargate has done a great job of presenting believable female characters other women (and men) can admire on many levels.

[...] I found this post (probably looking at linkbacks from FeministSF), but I’m so glad I did. It breaks down the number of women who’ve directed episodes of Stargate: SG-1 and Stargate: Atlan… and reveals that, behind the scenes, women don’t play much of a role. Some years there were [...]

You know, I agree, by and large, with a lot of the commenters, but I think they need to shut up with the bashing of the character of Dr. Jennifer Keller. I notice they’re all bashing her for her relationship with the character of Dr. Rodney McKay. That’s a bit of feminism fail right there, people.

Just a small note about the comment of not seeing women other than Sam and Vala going through the SGC gate. There were quite a few women on other teams, but they were either background characters, or a one time guest appearance (as in “The Sentinel”). There was a woman on the team in “A Matter of Time” (who got killed with the rest of her team on the black hole planet). There were apparently several women on the teams in “Spirits”. And while there were often “blink and you’ll miss them” moments, I did see women on other teams in other SG1 episodes. And though it was a Russian team, there was a woman on the Russian team in “The Tomb”. And in “Proving Ground”, at least they had two “new” female recruits going through training. All that said, though, yes, they should have had a lot more women in the mix than they did through the whole run of the series.