Brent Lang, for Variety:
The push comes as part of the anti-defamation group’s studio responsibility index, an annual survey of depictions of LGBT characters in major studio releases. Disney, which owns “Star Wars” creator LucasFilm, was one of two studios to feature no gay or lesbian characters in any of their films last year. The other was Paramount.
From what I can see, The Force Awakens took great steps to be inclusive—relative to the previous two Star Wars trilogies.
And, as GLAAD notes, there haven’t yet been any openly gay characters.
But have there been any gay characters, period?
From Sam Barsanti of A.V. Club:
Of course, GLAAD’s call for gay Star Wars characters probably refers to ones who are openly gay, and not characters whose furtive glances and playful banter make it seem like they have a thing for a certain former Stormtrooper even if the movie never specifically acknowledges it. We’re referring, of course, to Oscar Isaac’s Poe Dameron, who made himself a special place in the romance-loving hearts of fan-fiction writers and Tumblr artists from pretty much the very first moment he encountered John Boyega’s Finn. A lot of people on the internet are convinced that Poe Dameron is gay anyway (including Isaac himself, apparently), so it could just be a matter of GLAAD—and anyone else concerned with onscreen representation of LGBT people—waiting until Episode VIII comes out and makes it official [emphasis added].
Unlike Barsanti, I don’t think we’ll have to wait for Episode VIII to see an openly gay character—I think that’s coming this Christmas.