"Star Wars" to Introduce First LGBT Character

That galaxy far, far away is about to get a whole lot more fabulous as Star Wars is set to unveil its first official LGBT character in the sci-fi franchise's new canon.

The Advocate reports that the groundbreaking introduction will take place in writer Paul S. Kemp's Star Wars novel Lords of the Sith, due out April 28:

Big Shiny Robot describes the new character, Moff Mors, as “an Imperial who has made some very serious mistakes but she is an incredibly capable leader and spends much of the book working hard to prevent absolute failure. She also happens to be a lesbian.”

This is not the first time LGBT characters have popped up in a galaxy far, far away in some form. Video game developer Bioware recently added same-sex romance options for players in the online role-playing game Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Additionally, a subtle mention of two gay Mandalorian men in a committed relationship was previously referenced in the Legacy of the Force books, a series that was part of the Star Wars expanded universe. (That continuity has since been wiped clean since Disney took over the sprawling space saga.) However, this is the first introduction of an LGBT character that is officially a part of the Star Wars canon.

Dey Rey editor at large Shelly Shapiro, who is responsible for the Star Wars fiction line of books, spoke up about the need for greater diversity in the Star Wars universe shortly after news about the inclusion of an LGBT character to the story’s cannon was announced.

"This is certainly the first [LGBT] character in canon," Shapiro said on the Full of Sith podcast. "But there was a gay Mandalorian couple, so it's not brand new. It's not something I really think about, it just makes sense. There's a lot of diversity — there should be diversity in Star Wars. You have all these different species and it would be silly to not also recognize that there's a lot of diversity in humans. If there's any message at all, it's simply that Star Wars is as diverse (or more so because they have alien species) as humanity is in real life and we don't want to pretend it's not. It just felt perfectly natural."