Star Wars Book Introduces First LGBT Character Into Canon

A forthcoming ‘Star Wars’ novel will introduce the series’ first gay character.

'Lords of the Sith' by Paul S. Kemp includes an Imperial officer by the name of Moff Mors, who is a lesbian.

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Mors is described by Big Shiny Robot as “an incredibly capable leader” who “has made some very serious mistakes” and in the book works hard to “prevent absolute failure.”

She is the first character to explicitly called gay in the official ‘Star Wars’ canon, but other LGBT characters have existed in other properties outside the canon.

In massively multiplayer online RPG Star Wars: The Old Republic, players were recently granted the ability to be in same sex relationships and in the ‘Legacy of the Force’ series released between 2006 and 2008 author Karen Traviss included a Mandalorian couple.

The couple - characters Goran Beviin and Medrit Vasur - were married, but the fact they were gay was referenced subtely and due to their fictional names many readers missed it.

On the Full of Sith podcast ‘Star Wars’ book editor at publisher Del Rey Shelly Shapiro said: “There should be diversity in ‘Star Wars.’ You have all these different species and it would be silly to not also recognise 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."

'Lords of the Sith' is set for release on 23 April.

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Picture Credits: LucasFilm / Del Rey