How many confirmed LGBT characters have appeared in Star Wars materials?

Question

I know that Moff Delian Mors (a lesbian woman in the excellent canon novel Lords of the Sith) is the first LGBT character in Disney canon, and Sinjir Rath Velus (from the abominable canon novel Star Wars: Aftermath) is the first gay man in Disney canon. Also in Aftermath, there is a lesbian couple - Esmelle and Shirene.

Another casual reference to a minor gay character referred to only as Ledaney appears in the brilliant Star Wars: Bloodline:

“You sure you’re doing okay over there, Seastriker?” shouted Ledaney, who was fixing up his own X-wing a few meters away. “Or do we need to fetch you some soda water and a fan?”

Guffaws echoed from every pilot in the place. Joph had made the mistake of being honest about his reaction to Port in a Storm, which meant he was going to spend the whole day hearing about it from guys who’d never once tried drinking the stuff.

So he shot back, “I’m good, Ledaney. But what about you? Word has it you’ve been hitting the Corellian stuff pretty hard lately.”

This time the laughter was louder. Anybody who didn’t know Ledaney would assume Joph was talking about the famed brandy, but every pilot in the squadron knew Ledaney’s new man was from Corellia.
- Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray

And unofficial though his statement was, Oscar Isaac attracted attention when he said he played the part of Poe as though Poe was romantically interested in Finn:

“I think it’s very subtle romance that’s happening; you have to watch it a few times to see the little hints. At least I was playing romance; in the cockpit I was playing romance."
- Oscar Isaac on Ellen

Similarly, Mark Hamill said Luke's sexuality is in the eye of the beholder:

“If you think Luke is gay, of course he is."
- Mark Hamill, quoted in Time Magazine

However, Mors, Velus, and Ledaney are canonically LGBT characters, but Luke and Poe's sexual orientations are as yet unknown.

Are there other characters in the franchise who are confirmed to be LGBT?

Note: Although I'm not aware of any pre-Disney LGBT characters, and I'm primarily interested in Disney canon, Legends is acceptable as well.

Answer 1

Not many

LGBT representation in Star Wars, as in much “children’s” fiction until recently, has been sparse. Of the many thousands of characters that have appeared in canon and Legends materials, only a handful have been gay or lesbian (far less than the expected proportion), and transgender representation is arguably nonexistent. This article gives a rundown of the LGBT characters that had appeared at the time of writing. Aside from those mentioned in the question, we have several examples:

• Goran Beviin appeared in "Boba Fett: A Practical Man" and in Legacy of the Force. In the latter work, it was revealed that he was married to a man, Medrit Vasur.

• As mentioned in the question, there are minor and major lesbian and gay characters in Star Wars: Aftermath, such as Esmelle, Shirene, and Sinjir. However, there is another reference to two more gay or bisexual characters, though it be exceedingly brief. Iggs’s parents are both male:

  “What happened to your parents?” the woman asks.

  Iggs freezes. He doesn’t want to think about it or even say it. He tries to block out the memories of seeing his two fathers lying there like that…

  —Star Wars: Aftermath

• Some have argued that Ziro the Hutt, from the Clone Wars TV series, is gay (and perhaps a stereotypical representation thereof). However, the main piece of evidence for this seems to be that his manner of speaking apparently was based on that of the (gay) Truman Capote. As indicated in the linked article, David Filoni, director of The Clone Wars, asserts that the Hutts generally have a fluid sexuality, and perhaps gender:

  He’s of questionable [sexuality] at least as a slug. They tell me that these slugs can be either male or female depending. That’s something I guess that slugs and snails do. I wasn’t aware of that but I have continuity experts that tell me these things.

  I suppose Jabba is the exception? He seems fairly clearly heterosexual. In any case, if the majority of the Hutts are of fluid sexuality or gender, the whole species could be considered (very oblique) LGBT representation.

• Tantagru Motts-Danel, a noted artist and propagandist, was a male Tarnab married to a male Weequay.

  TANTAGRU MOTTS-DANEL: A sandscribe from a Tarnab colony on Sriluur, Tantagru Motts-Danel and his Weequay husband, Gojuni Motts-Danel, were a notable couple in the corporate art scene, specializing in holography and abstract art.

  _{Star Wars Propaganda: A History of Persuasive Art in the Galaxy}

  This is also notable as one of the few canonical examples of interspecies marriages in Star Wars, and perhaps the only canon instance of a hyphenated surname.

A few Star Wars video games also have featured LGBTQ characters.

• In Knights of the Old Republic, Juhani is lesbian. As noted on Wookieepedia:

  Juhani is the first female character written for the Star Wars universe that is a lesbian. An error in the first release of the video game allowed player-characters of both male and female genders to access the Juhani romance sub-plot, leading some people to believe that Juhani was bisexual, but the error has since been corrected and the romance sub-plot restricted to female player-characters. Juhani’s romance sub-plot is still available to male player-characters via fan-made mods and is still noted as accessible to all player-characters on her Databank entry.

• Similarly, in Star Wars: The Old Republic, characters can form same-sex pairings, albeit only on a single planet:

  But for some reason, the nature of those relationships was limited to heterosexual interaction only – an odd decision from a studio that has featured same-sex relationships in its Mass Effect and Dragon Age titles. Immediately, the team announced that it would be updating its romantic content, but early in January, the game’s executive producer, Jeff Hickman warned that this was going to be a complex process, and hinted that compromises would be necessary. And the compromise is Makeb, the gay planet, available only via download – and the only place in the galaxy where relationships can be formed with NPCs of the same gender.

---

I am not aware of any definite transgender characters in Star Wars. The article mentioned earlier talks about Reess Kairn, who did indeed change sex. However, since this was done for utilitarian purposes, it is highly uncertain whether Reess’s gender is male or female. Thus Reess cannot be said to definitively count as a transgender character.

Answer 2

Amilyn Holdo from The Last Jedi implied that she could be open to more than just humanoids (and, less explicitly, males).

"A pair of pretty dark eyes." Then Amilyn thought about that for a moment. "Or more than a pair, if you're into Grans. Or Aqualish, or Talz. Or even - "

"That's all right! Leia said through laughter. "It's just humanoid males for me."

"Really? That feels so limiting."

"Thank goodness it's a big galaxy."

_{^{Leia: Princess of Alderaan}}

Answer 3

Reddit user Bond_SWLibriComics created this helpful guide of every LGBTQIA+ character in the current canon. I'll provide more information below.

• Ackmena - A woman married to another woman
• Aleksin and Pavol - Married men
• Holdo - Unconcerned with gender or species
• Yu and Just Lucky - Male partners
• Cryar and Marcy - Female partners. Marcy also had a male partner in the past.
• Bog and Posla - Male partners
• Ceret - Non-binary
• Wilsorr - A man in a relationship with another man
• Aphra - Confirmed to be a lesbian. Had relationships with the women Okka, Starros, and Tolvan, respectively. Starros also had relationships with men.
• Hansen - A gay male
• Flix and Orka - Male partners
• Sy - Non-binary
• Venzee - Non-binary
• Calrissian - Pansexual
• Lapin - Non-binary
• D'Acy and Tyce - Married women. They're the pair that kiss in Rise of Skywalker.
• Gyasi - Asexual
• Tarkon and T'onga - Female partners
• The San Tekkas - Married men
• Saché and Yanê - Female partners
• Velus - A gay man
• Naberrie - Asexual and aromantic
• Terec - Non-binary
• TK-421 and Tarkin - Males partners. I would note that the story this relationship is contained in is of unclear canonicity. Additionally, while Tarkin's identity is implied, it is never directly stated.
• Grey - A man married to another man.
• Moradi - Implied to be asexual and/or aromantic
• Quell - A bisexual woman

Answer 4

Saché and Yamé, Padmé’s handmaidens as seen in the book ‘Queen’s Shadow’ by E. K. Johnson are in a relationship, meaning they’re either gay, bi, or pan.

Answer 5

In Doctor Aphra: An Audiobook Original when Dr. Aphra, Sana Starros, and Princess Leia are on Sunspot prison Princess Leia says that her first meeting with Sana was "awkward" which Dr. Aphra takes to mean romantically.

Leia: "I brought you on this trip Sana, so we could move beyond the awkwardness of our initial meeting"

Dr. Aphra: "Well that totally made my ears perk up. Was there a connection between the Princess and Sana? I never would have pegged Sana as having a thing for Princesses but then again after all the stuff I subjected her to maybe she decided it would be better to go with someone the complete opposite of her usual type."

Dr. Aphra and Sana Starros have a romantic relationship in college.

Sana Starros to Aphra: "Ok, so. Collandra, Yoshi, who else are you seeing besides me?"

Chelli Lona Aphra: "Darling, I told you its hard to keep track but I've been avoiding Collandra since she started staking out my classes waiting for me to emerge. Such a stalker. Who needs that? And Yoshi came down with the Wookiee flu right after we had our first... uh... encounter."

Yoshi's sex, gender, and species (See Admiral Holdo answer) are not mentioned. It is also not clear if the "Wookiee flu" is capable of infecting multiple species like (or is) the Ardroxian Flu

In fact the whole Dr. Aphra audio book is a recording to her ex-girlfriend Sana Starros