Star Trek star Robert Beltran angered fans this week by agreeing with an anti-LGBTQ+ post on X (formerly Twitter) after being accused of breaking the actor’s strike rules at a convention.
Many fans reported that Beltran — who played Chakotay on Star Trek: Voyager and voiced the character on Star Trek: Prodigy — took the stage at the recent STLV convention and broke the SAG-AFTRA strike rules that all of the other actors were following.
Actors were told they could speak on panels at the convention so long as they refrained from discussing their TV and movie work in a promotional context. This meant that William Shatner avoided talking about Star Trek at this panel and actors Ethan Peck and Zachary Quinto didn’t discuss their character Spock at a Spock actor meetup.
Fans took to social media to criticize Beltran for breaking these rules especially in light of the fact that many current Star Trek actors have been on the picket lines for weeks.
The situation only got worse when the actor seemed to respond to a homophobic and anti-trans X post that was insulting queer Star Trek fans that were critical of the actor breaking the strike rules.
The post, which came from someone who goes by @nationastatesman on X, said “I hope you're doing OK after the absolute sickening abuse you're getting online. These are not star trek fans. These are weirdos with [rainbow flag and trans flag emojis] and pronouns in their bio's. Real fans have your back.”
“Real fans” seems to refer to Star Trek fans who are not part of the LGBTQ+ community and Beltran responded by commenting, “Real Star Trek fans are fantastic, very true. Thank you, sir.”
The posts have since been removed from X, but a savvy Trekkie screenshotted the thread.
Queer fans of the long-running franchise were quick to announce their love of the Star Trek universe, posting comments like, “Trans lesbian Trekkie right here” and “Almost all of my Trekkie friends are queer to the point where it's become a running bit lmao.”
Another fan wrote, “I don't get how someone who was in Trek doesn't get what Trek is about,” pointing to Star Trek’s overarching theme being all about being accepted and celebrated for your differences and the violence that takes place when that doesn’t happen. It’s a potent metaphor for the queer experience and one that LGBTQ+ fans have always responded to.
When Deep Space Nine was on the air, the character Jadzia Dax was beloved by many trans fans who saw her character as living the trans experience. And since then the franchise has added queer characters, including on Star Trek: Discovery where there was a romance between a non-binary character, a human named Adira, and a trans character named Gray.
Since it seems like Beltran doesn’t know that, perhaps he’s not the “real fan.”
UPDATE: Robert Beltran responds and his social media history resurfaces.
Following that exchange going viral on X more users are unearthing his post history and exchanges they had with the actor that were, umm, less than pleasant.
In other news, Gay Twitter (fine, Gay X) is having a heyday.
