Star Trek: Celebrations Features All-Star LGBTQIA+ Creators In A Pride-Filled Anthology

As the Star Trek franchise gears up to celebrate its 60th anniversary, IDW Publishing will launch a special one-shot starring the universe's queer characters. It will be released just in time for Pride month.

Star Trek: Celebrations 2026 will be helmed by a lineup of LGBTQIA+ creators, although exact names have not been announced at this time. The official description for Celebrations 2026 teases that it will be "starring the universe’s queer characters in tales of love and triumph, exemplifying Gene Roddenberry's mission for us all to one day celebrate infinite diversity in infinite combinations." It will hit stores in May, with newly revealed cover art showcasing some of Star Trek's diversity and queer couples.

Star Trek: Celebrations Celebrates the Franchise's Queer Characters

Since its inception, Star Trek has always been a sci-fi franchise celebrating humanity's potential for tolerance and acceptance, and it has remained groundbreaking for its depictions of diversity dating all the way back to The Original Series. Star Trek's LGBTQIA+ inclusion has a long history, and the new comic one-shot intends to celebrate that.

Back in 2024, IDW released a similar one-shot story that was also titled Celebrations, which had five separate stories focusing on characters like Culber, Stamets, Mariner, Seven and Raffi. It's likely that 2026's offering will explore similar themes and characters.

For now, it remains to be seen exactly which characters will appear in the upcoming Celebrations 2026 issue. Outside the one-shot story, IDW has further plans for some of Star Trek's queer characters, however. A Captain Seven comic was announced, picking up after the events of Star Trek: Picard. Another new series, Star Trek: Zero Point, will star Raffi Musiker.

Star Trek's History With LGBTQIA+ Representation

While Star Trek: The Original Series didn't have any openly gay characters, Star Trek has long been inclusive. Actor George Takei, who played Hikaru Sulu, came out as gay in 2005, revealed that he spoke with creator Gene Roddenberry about "theoretically" discussing LGBT rights on the show, but was told the timing wasn't right.

Roddenberry later planned to have gay crew members appear on the fifth season of Star Trek: The Next Generation, but died shortly after these plans were announced, leading to it never happening. Decades later in 2016, Star Trek Beyond portrayed Hikaru Sulu as being in a same-sex relationship and raising a daughter, making him the first openly gay main character in the film franchise.

Later LGBTQIA+ inclusivity in Star Trek includes 2017's Star Trek: Discovery, which introduced Paul Stamets and Hugh Culber as the first openly gay characters in the franchise's television series. The series later introduced a lesbian character, with Tig Notaro's Jett Reno appearing in a recurring role.

Discover's third season went on to make the Star Trek universe even more diverse by introducing Adira Tal, a nonbinary character who was in a relationship with Gray Tal, a transgender man. Star Trek: Picard's first season also saw Seven of Nine and Raffi exploring a romantic relationship, while Strange New Worlds confirmed that Christine Chapel dated a woman in her past.

More details about Star Trek: Celebrations 2026 are expected to emerge in the coming months ahead of the one-shot's release in May.