A doctoral dissertation

Disclaimer: Set in the Trek universe. The characters that are original are mine. This is just an attempt to explore why there are no gays in Star Fleet or on Earth or who aren't evil. Trek universe belongs to Paramount.

---
“I’ve thought of my dissertation topic,” Tamara said as she flounced into a seat in the ‘Human Center’ room at the University of Betazed.

Carl rolled his eyes. He loved Tamara, like a sister, but sometimes she could be overly dramatic. Toss in the fact that he had come to the center to relax and get away from the natives, have some piece of mind with out worries of the locals reading it, and he wasn’t that amused to see her. Still, Tamara was like a sister and on Betazed, humans looked out for their own; a little interspecies racism wasn’t unknown on the planet.

“So what’s the topic? How will you impress your illustrious Alyssa?”

Tamara smiled brightly, leaned back in her chair and put her feet on the table.

“Humans and sex.”

Carl rolled his eyes. “Darling, we humans have sex. We know that. You had it just the other night with the delectable little red head from Bajor. Besides, I thought you left Earth so you could do something you couldn’t do on Earth.”

Tamara’s cheeks went red and her feet came crashing to the floor. “Low blow.” She sighed. “I want to cover human sexuality, the rise and decline of human homosexual culture in Earth culture circa 2050 to 2150.”

Carl cocked an eyebrow. “You want to write a dissertation about us queers. That’s nice.”

Tamara looked abashed. “We couldn’t say that on Earth. No one would know what you were referring to. Or we’d get looks. Hell, we get looks now and we’re all but shut out of various places if we put our lifestyles on display.”

Carl reached over and patted his friend’s hand. “It will be alright.” Still, Carl felt guilty and knew the platitude wouldn’t comfort his friend. It would never really be alright; Starfleet’s intolerance meant that his friend, that Tamara could never join Starfleet’s science division and would be locked out of some of the most promising archaeological research on Earth. For all humanity’s insistence on diversity, for all their pride in creating a better and more tolerant world, for having gone where people had not gone before, some of the masses were nothing but good old fashion stick in the mud bigots. Trained anthropologists did not like to sit at home. This was Tamara’s chance to prove herself to the people at the University of Helsinki who had removed her funding. He should find some way to be kinder to her. Tamara’s vacant look as she pulled her hand away only confirmed it.

“Alyssa will like it. If not, Professor Sudor is generally willing to stick her neck out on the line enough to take things which will piss off a few Earthers.”

“Sudor enjoys pissing off our race. Go to her instead. Pass with Alyssa as a dissertation topic.” It was common sense advice to Carl. He wanted to make sure that Tamara knew it too. Betazoids might be a bit more tolerant of supervisors sleeping with those under their supervision but if she went through with the topic, Earth based universities would heartily discredit it based on the relationship with her female Betazoid lover alone. Tamara stared blankly at him again. “Tamara, I figured you were going this way. Hell, that’s why I came here: to get away from that bigoted intolerant crap at home. But girlfriend, you have to remember that you’re still human. At some point, you’ll need to go home. Don’t damn your torpedoes. Use Sudor instead.”

Tamara sighed. What Carl said was true and she really didn’t like to hear it. Sudor would be better career wise; Alyssa would understand. It just seemed to her that she’d be happier working with her lover in a community that didn’t view her as different bad. “I can approach Sudor.” Tamara grumbled to herself some and followed with an internal dialogue. Academic pleasure and academic pain, this defined her. Carl understood that. He had left because he was a bit to effeminate and that sort of guy just left Earth; there were no more cross dressers, effeminate, queer man’s queer on Earth. Life was easier elsewhere, where that behavior was considered deviant but the norm.

Carl leaned back in his chair and smiled at her. A personal, professional, academic crisis had been averted. A topic had been chosen. The world could go on. Tamara could work with that. She grinned at Carl. There was no need to be overly emotional. “We’re done with the overly emotional thing?”

“Yes, we’re done,” Tamara said. “Now want to head to the University bar and get a bit tipsy and celebrate figuring out a new reason to remain at the place?”

“Of course, love. Of course. Lead the way.”

Three days later, Tamara found herself in the University library. She walked among the books. This library was an open secret in many academic circles in the Federation. Some earnest while historian, librarian, booklover from Earth had entered the University of Betazed soon after Betazed had joined the Federation. Before she left, she’d started this library in a large vault in a lesser used part on the University campus. The University had supported this because the rational was sound: information sorted on-line was not always as intuitive in finding related information as it was if you sifted through the same materials on the shelves. The works also served as a cultural heritage for a number of different species and cultures, with last surviving copies of texts houses there. Humanity had its moments of brilliance as a human led this charge; this was important as Betazoids did not always place an emphasis on the written word.

Books, books, beautiful books. Tamara ran a finger down the spine of an interesting looking book. She ran a finger down the spine of another. There were so many interesting books. A brief look at the titles made her smile inside as she read some of them aloud. “One Teacher in Ten. Terra Nova’s Homosexual Children. The Lesbian’s Guide to Sex. The Impact of the Federation Charter on Minority Communities on Earth.”