Fox's 911 Lone Star is not a Queer show

There's a good analogy between the premise of the show and Hollywood's TV business, which is that there are too many white men who aren't open to change in the industry of Medical Services and Hollywood. For those who haven't watched Fox's original 911, which aired its third season in 2019, the show has always been pretty diverse and features a lot of calls to racism and sexism in the workplace, whether that be a fire station or police department.

At the beginning of 9-1-1: Lone Star, New York's Captain Strand (Rob Lowe) is asked to rebuild a station in Texas that suffered from a tragedy months back. All but one member of the previous team was killed and due to Strand's history of starting a station from scratch (they imply much of his team and others in New York were devastated from 9/11) they desperately need him. Not only does the station need a new team, but Texas fire stations haven't accepted the higher-ups request for diversity with open arms. At first Strand isn't interested because he is close with his son, who is about to get engaged, but when his son suffers an overdose after being dumped they both up and move to Texas.

Of course both of the 911 shows are a little cheesy and dramatic, and some would say "on the nose," but the great part about that is there there are no issue the writers have been afraid to cover. These shows get into the nitty and gritty of these characters lives and it's amazing to be able to relate to them.

This is especially the case in 9-1-1: Lone Star because Captain Strand's son is gay, and his new team consists of a black trans man (who upon looking up is actually trans in real life), a muslim woman, a 'slow' hispanic man, and a member of the old team who is a white man and has PTSD from the incident.

T.K. Strand, the main characters son, is gay and seems to be openly accepted by his father, which is a great experience to be able to watch. Not only that, but T.K. has a history of drug abuse and his father tries to help without being too overbearing, and when T.K. is dumped his father uproots his life to help put both of them in a better environment. Now, it's heavily implied that there are areas in Texas that are unsafe for gay individuals. In fact, the whole team has issues in Texas for one reason or another, in the first season alone they show more discrimination occurring than the original 9-1-1 did. However, despite the things that could happen, T.K. quickly meets Officer Reyes and they hit it off.

The character Paul Strickland is a transgender man in the show and the actor who plays him, Brian Michael Smith, is as well. This part of his character is something that comes up in appropriate situations and isn’t made an issue by anyone in the workforce. There’s no “queer-baiting” here either, they show a trans man living an average life where the point of interest isn’t their gender identity, but rather the job they do. This is unlike much trans media there is, and should be a standard for the TV industry because it shows how easy it is to achieve. The first step is showing that transgender people occur in our society, and they’re to be shown rather than hidden and rejected. A nice anecdote from the show is how Captain Strand is very into his hair and skin routine which is played for ‘lols’ because usually that’s portrayed as a female concern. When he was surprised to find that the other men in his department don’t use lotion or moisturizer, he’s shocked and shows them exactly what to use and gives them some of his things. He doesn’t make a comment to Paul about how he should have known to do these things, he treats him with respect and teaches him just as he does the other men.

The show also stars a Muslim woman character, Marian Marwari, and Mateo Chavez, a ‘slow’ Hispanic man. These characters show the struggle of being a Muslim woman in America, and more importantly in a Southern state and how a man with learning disabilities is able to become a firefighter after repeatedly trying and failing when others make it a point to help him.

When I started watching the show I did have one big fear within the cast of the main characters. As soon as I saw all these diverse characters form a team, they show the one firefighter left behind from the incident dislike the new firehouse. I saw a Southern white man who was angry and instantly thought they would be forced to work with a bigot. That is until, they give his character depth by showing him actively experiencing PTSD from watching his friends die, they show him have a loving interracial relationship, and more importantly he never ever points out how his new teammates are not the white men he’s used to in terms of their queer-ness, religion, or ethnicities.