Star Wars reveals first official LGBT character

For the first time in its almost 38-year history, the popular Star Wars sci-fi franchise is finally adding an LGBT character to its official universe.

According to Bigshinyrobot.com, the new character of Moff Delian Mors, featured in the upcoming novel Lords of the Sith, is not only an incredibly capable Imperial leader but also happens to be a lesbian.

While LGBT characters have occasionally appeared in some Star Wars games and novels, they are not considered to be ‘canon’ in the sense that they do not fit into the official storyline of the franchise.

The new book’s author, Paul S. Kemp said that the character’s sexuality was intended to be inclusive, but not a statement.

On Twitter he added: “I don’t do ‘political correctness’, whatever that means. I write the stories I want to write, featuring the characters I want to feature. I don’t touch demographic bases to appease this group or that. I write what I want. Full stop.”

Shelly Shapiro, editor of the Star Wars line of books at Del Rey, said: “This is certainly the first character in canon… You have all these different species and it would be silly to not also recognise that there’s a lot of diversity in humans.

“If there’s any message at all, it’s simply that Star Wars is as diverse (or more so because they have alien species) as humanity is in real life and we don’t want to pretend it’s not. It just felt perfectly natural.”

Lords of the Sith will be released in April.