Fan Petition Asks Lucasfilm to Name Star Wars' First LGBT Character After Orlando Shooting Victim

The horrific violence of the Orlando massacre at the Pulse gay nightclub still reverberates - whether it's in the increased support for the LGBT community in public spaces (including in Orlando), the upped presence of security at Pride parades and festivals around the United States, or on the more personal side, as friends and families of the victims continue to try to grasp the situation. One such friend is Star Wars fan and geek journalist Joshua Yehl (IGN), whose friend Christopher Andrew "Drew" Leinonen and Drew's boyfriend Juan Ramon Guerrero were both amongst the 49 victims who were killed in the worst mass shooting in U.S. history.

Yehl has taken to petition host Change.org with an open letter to Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy requesting an honor for his friend. While some LGBT characters have recently started to appear in Star Wars canon by way of recently published novels, there hasn't been one confirmed on the big screen in live action films yet. Yehl's request, as he describes it, is "the best way to honor him in a really visible lasting way," and that's to "make him the inspiration for the first-ever [on screen] gay Star Wars character."

"This tragedy happened because of hate," Yehl writes in his letter, "but Star Wars is something that unites people, so fulfilling this request would only serve to bring more love into the world, and that's what Drew was all about."

The idea is to create a character inspired by and named in some way after Drew. Perhaps something like "Drewly Nohnen" or "Drew Layno-Neen" or something otherwise suitably Star Wars. At press time, on the day of launch, the petition to, as it's being referred to on Twitter, #PutDrewInStarWars, has received over 1100 signatures in a short while.

"It's vitally important to have LGBT characters among [those on screen]," Yehl said in the petition video. "We can be heroes."

Click here to go through to the petition for Yehl's full open letter, and to sign in support of his request for a unique way to honor his fallen friend.