This is a rec.arts.startrek.fandom posting dated July 1, 1995 by Timothy Perkins announcing the formation of the Voyager Visibility Project (VVP).

From: Timothy D. Perkins (tdperkin@ccnet.com)
Subject: Gay/Lesbian Website & E-Petition
Newsgroups: rec.arts.startrek.fandom
Date: 07/01/1995

GLAAD & Gay & Lesbian Science Fiction Groups Launch Internet Petition Drive for Gay/Lesbian Characters on Star Trek: Voyager

The USS Harvey Milk Gay & Lesbian Star Trek Association, Planet Stonewall Gay & Lesbian Science Fiction Association and GLAAD SFBA are sponsoring an e-mail petition drive to persuade Paramount and the producers of UPN's new Star Trek: Voyager television series to add a positive, on-going gay or lesbian character to the featured cast by this fall.

The website and petition, co-sponsored by the three organizations, is located at: http://www.gaytrek.com/gaytrek.

We are extremely disappointed by the fact that Paramount and the producers of the program have consistently ignored Gene Roddenberry's plans to regularly feature anonymous but identifiably gay crew members on ST:TNG, a plan which he announced just two months before his death in 1991. said Tim Perkins, Voyager Project Visibility Director. Since that announcement, three seasons of TNG and two new series, Deep Space Nine and Star Trek Voyager, have been produced by Paramount ... but we have yet to see ourselves portrayed as part of a future in which Roddenberry saw us as fully integrated and accepted into society.

Given the future that Gene Roddenberry envisioned, in which poverty, racial prejudice, sexism and even war have been eliminated among humankind, it is logical to assume --as Gene has publicly acknowledged-- that homophobia and discrimination based on sexual preference will also have been abolished. The group believes that the producers should move to more effectively reflect that vision by incorporating a character that would illustrate an end to prejudice based on sexual orientation .. just as the characters of Uhura and Sulu illustrated the end of racial prejudice and the character of Checkov illustrated an end to nationalist emnities and divisions on Earth.

The e-mail petition will be supplemented by a paper petition which will be circulated at Gay Freedom Day celebrations in San Francisco, New York and other cities.

The website, which features short fiction, reviews, news, art and discussions by and for gay & lesbian Star Trek and science fiction fans, also allows visitors to rate each episode of Voyager on a number of criteria, from plot, acting and special effects to scientific plausibility and social relevance.

During its first two weeks on-line, the petition has garnered signatures from 33 states and eleven nations, including Sweden, Switzerland, Great Britain, Israel, Italy, South Africa, Germany, Hong Kong, Portugal, Australia and Canada.