The most iconic character in Star Wars, Luke Skywalker, is now listed among the "LGBTQ+ individuals" on authoritative Star Wars fan encyclopedia Wookieepedia.
The online wiki for Star Wars fandom, Wookieepedia, updated it's LGBTQ+ individuals page to include Luke Skywalker "based on a recent short story by activist writer Sam Maggs," reports Bounding Into Comics.
One Twitter user asked Wookieepedia about Luke's LGBTQ+ categorization and wrote, "Not trolling in any way but what is the rationale for Luke being included in the LGBTQ+ list? Not saying there isn’t one, I just am not really familiar with anything defining his gender, sexuality, etc in canon besides for maybe a girl friend in the comics?"
"There is a story in which he felt romantic feelings towards a guy," the Wiki replied, later clarifying "Short story Luke on the Bright Side."
The story itself appeared in Stories of Jedi and Sith published by Lucasfilm press in June 2022, a book targeted for the age range of 9-12.
According to Bounding Into Comics, "the actual story doesn’t appear to show any romantic feelings expressed by Luke Skywalker towards Sergeant Reyé Hollis of Alliance Special Forces despite Sam Magg’s clear history of pushing her activism into her stories."
After the story's publication, Twitter users commented on the romance into the story.
The Wayseeking Jedi wrote, "I just read "Luke on the Bright Side" from "Star Wars: Stories of Jedi and Sith" and you can't tell me this is not a romance. Now I have to know, @SamMaggs is Luke Skywalker canonicly queer? (Please tell me he is! )"
"me after every page of luke on the bright side by@SamMaggs: my god. these rebels gay. good for them. good for them," another tweeted.
The recent controversy over whether or not Luke Skywalker is gay is not even the beginning of it. According to a Vanity Fair article from 2016, when JJ Abrams was a creator with the franchise, he said that Star Wars should have more characters who identify as non-straight. Mark Hamill, who played Luke, suggested in an interview at the time that Luke could be gay. Vanity Fair reported that Hamill said "of course" Luke is gay.
Hamill said, "...fans are writing and ask all these questions, 'I'm bullied in school... I'm afraid to come out'. They say to me, 'Could Luke be gay?' I'd say it is meant to be interpreted by the viewer... If you think Luke is gay, of course he is. You should not be ashamed of it. Judge Luke by his character, not by who he loves."
An op-ed from Science Fiction and Fantasy genre subject site Tor addressed Hamill's comments in 2016.
In an article titled "Do Not Make Luke Skywalker Another Tragic Gay Character," Emmet Asher-Perrin wrote "If he were suddenly revealed as a gay character in lieu of all that, his sexuality could be perceived by the audience as tragedy. Poor Luke Skywalker, who devoted his life to others and never got the things that he wanted for himself."
Asher-Perrin put Luke Skywalker in the context of Dumbledore from the Harry Potter franchise, who had been retconned as homosexual, which added layers of unintentional meaning to the already established biography of the character.
William Shatner, who played the iconic Star Trek Captain Kirk, waded into the controversy over a potentially gay Luke in 2021, when he pointed out that Luke got married to a woman in Star Wars.
Others pointed out that Luke and his wife had a child, and named the child Ben.
Disney, which backs international LGBTQ advocacy group GLSEN, and has opposed legislation protecting parental rights in cases where schools seek to keep students' gender identity secret, is no stranger to employing the latest trends in diversity as part of their programming and ethos.
As the site Sportskeeda reports, the change of Luke Skywalker's orientation is one of many moves towards "diversity and representation" that Wookiepedia has embraced.
"Recently, a controversy emerged regarding adding preferred pronouns to all Star Wars characters on Wookieepedia. Some felt that this was unnecessary and went against the original spirit of the space opera. Others thought it was an important step towards creating a more inclusive and diverse universe," the site reports.Join and support independent free thinkers!
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