To boldly go where no(n) binary has gone before

The third season of Star Trek: Discovery, among other things, introduces a nonbinary character, Adira Tal. They are a 16-year-old human and host to a Trill symbiont which they took into their body when the former host (also their boyfriend) died unexpectedly. As host to the symbiont, they have the memories of all previous hosts in addition to their own.

When Adira first appears onscreen, they use she/her pronouns. They have short dark hair and the uniform jumpsuit of Starfleet does nothing to either emphasise or hide their chest. It is only after we learn they are host to a symbiont and they access the memories of the previous hosts that they come out (to Stamets, who has taken on somewhat of a father-figure/confidant role). Later in the series, there's a scene in which Stamets and Culber talk about Adira while they're in the room and presumably asleep. Other than that, Adira's gender identity isn't really mentioned.

Once my initial excitement at seeing a nonbinary character in one of my favourite franchises faded, I realised I'm quite disappointed in how the writers for Discovery handled this particular character.

By writing the scene where Adira comes out to Stamets, the writers are explicitly stating that their version of the future is one in which most humans apparently think of gender as binary. If they didn't, coming out would be unnecessary. The fact that the writers apparently didn't have the imagination to give us a world where coming out is irrelevant because no one makes assumptions is extremely disappointing. This is Star Trek’s first nonbinary character, and they've essentially been shoved down our throats.

As any nonbinary person knows, nonbinary representation in media is almost exclusively limited to robots and aliens. Although Adira is human, there is a distinctly alien element to them; there's a whole subplot that discusses how they're the first human to become a host for a Trill symbiont, and their access to the memories of the other hosts gives them uncanny abilities. (In a flashback scene, they watch their boyfriend Gray play the cello, something he became able to do after bonding with the symbiont and accessing the previous hosts' memories; in the present, they play the same melody.) The fact that they don't come out until after they've accessed the memories of the previous hosts adds to that alienness.

Then there's the scene where Stamets and Culber talk about Adira while thinking they are asleep. In my opinion, this scene only exists to use Adira's pronouns and it could have been done a lot better. It came across as awkward and shoehorned-in.

It's really nice to see nonbinary representation in Star Trek. I wish it were good representation. These feelings can and should and do coexist.