60 Years of Star Trek: Celebrating a Future Worth Building
A Message from Michael Agnew, CEO & Co-Chair of the Board
Sixty years ago, Star Trek invited audiences to imagine a different kind of future.
When the original series premiered on September 8, 1966, it introduced a vision in which humanity had survived its divisions, reached beyond the boundaries of our world, and begun exploring the stars together. It imagined a future shaped not simply by technological progress, but by the belief that humanity itself could become better.
Sixty years later, that idea still matters.
For To Proudly Go, Star Trek has always represented more than a television franchise we love. Its optimism, diversity, curiosity, and belief in the dignity of people are woven into the inspiration behind our organization and our belief that science fiction can help us imagine—and work toward—a kinder and more inclusive world.
Celebrating 60 Years Together
This summer, To Proudly Go was thrilled to return to one of the things we love most: bringing our community together around Star Trek.
At Red Eye NY, we gathered fans, performers, friends, and members of our community for our Star Trek: Strange New Worlds viewing parties. These evenings brought together the things that have defined so much of To Proudly Go's programming over the years: science fiction, queer community, drag, laughter, conversation, and the simple joy of experiencing Star Trek together.
There is something special about watching Trek in a room filled with people who understand what it can mean.
For some, it is entertainment. For others, it has been a place to find hope, representation, possibility, or even family.
For us, it has always been a little bit of all of those things.
As part of our celebration of Star Trek's 60th anniversary, To Proudly Go has also published A LGBTQIA+ History of Star Trek, exploring the franchise's long and sometimes complicated journey toward queer representation.
That history includes moments when Star Trek challenged the boundaries of its time, moments when it fell short of the inclusive future it imagined, and the generations of LGBTQIA+ fans, actors, writers, advocates, and allies who continued asking Trek to live up to its own ideals.
From stories that used science fiction as metaphor to the increasingly open representation of LGBTQIA+ characters and performers in modern Star Trek, the journey reflects how both the franchise and our broader culture have changed.
Today, queer people aren't simply looking for ourselves between the lines.
We can see LGBTQIA+ characters living, loving, serving, commanding, exploring, building families, making mistakes, saving the day, and helping define the future of Star Trek.
Our history celebrates figures including George Takei, Jeri Ryan's Seven of Nine and Michelle Hurd's Raffi Musiker, Wilson Cruz, Anthony Rapp, Blu del Barrio, Ian Alexander, Jesse James Keitel, Karim Diané, Jackie Cox, and others whose stories, performances, advocacy, and connections to the Trek community have contributed to that continuing journey.
Their contributions also remind us that representation isn't simply about appearing on a screen. It is about who gets to imagine themselves having a place in the future.
The Future Is Something We Build
Star Trek has never promised that humanity's journey toward a better future would be easy.
What it offered instead was the possibility that we could get there.
That possibility is part of what inspired To Proudly Go.
We may not have starships or transporters, but we don't have to wait for the 23rd or 24th century to begin creating communities rooted in dignity, diversity, generosity, compassion, and belonging.
Every time we create a space where someone feels welcome, support an LGBTQIA+ performer, raise money for an important community cause, bring people together through science fiction, or simply remind someone that there is a place for them at the table, we bring a small piece of that imagined future into the present.
That is the future To Proudly Go wants to help build.
Here's to the Next 60 Years
To everyone who has ever watched Star Trek and imagined themselves aboard the Enterprise, Voyager, Deep Space Nine, Discovery—or any of the extraordinary ships and stations that have carried this story forward—this anniversary belongs to you, too.
It belongs to the generations who discovered Trek on television in the 1960s and to the young person discovering it for the first time today.
It belongs to the fans who saw themselves represented and to those who kept asking when they would finally get that chance.
And it belongs to a community that, sixty years later, continues believing that the future can be better than the present.
To Proudly Go is proud to celebrate 60 years of Star Trek, and we look forward to continuing to celebrate the stories, people, and ideals that encourage us to boldly imagine what comes next.
Here's to the next sixty years—and to a future where everyone has a place among the stars.
Live Proud and Prosper.
Michael Agnew
Chief Executive Officer & Chair of the Board
To Proudly Go Inc.
