Star Wars confirms first openly gay character

After finally including non-white leads in The Force Awakens, a new Star Wars novel will include the franchise's first openly gay lead.

Star Wars: Aftermath, written by author Chuck Wendig, introduces fans to a new character, the Imperial turncoat Sinjir Rath Velus.

While there have been other LGBT characters in the Star Wars universe, this will be the first time the character has been a major hero, a small step forward that is long overdue.

"You're starting to see it more, obviously, in the larger narrative properties," Wendig said to Entertainment Weekly.

"Comics are just starting to figure out that that [LGBT men and women] exist in the world, and you can include and incorporate them in stories and speak to those people, and speak to audiences who may not have been spoken to before."

Sinjir is an AWOL Imperial loyalty officer who finds himself siding with the forces of the Rebellion after witnessing the horror of the Battle of Endor.

The issue of what life is like for gay men and women in the Empire is also touched on and is a theme Wendig has hinted he will explore in more depth in future novels. He is currently signed on to write two more for the franchise.

Another major franchise is doing the same thing.

Bond author Anthony Horowitz has announced 007 will have an "outspoken" gay friend in Trigger Mortis, the newest Bond novel.

Trigger Mortis is set in 1957, but Horowitz has still tried to modernise the secret agent's attitude.

"The book is true to the character and keeps him as fans would want him, which is as the original hard-bitten guy," Horowitz said.

"But then it always challenges and nudges and says 'well wait a minute'.

"I ... gave him a very outspoken gay friend, who chides him and says, 'Come on Bond, you're living in the 20th century now not the Middle Ages.'"

- nzherald.co.nz