It's definitely Not Good, but a lot of that comes from the time it was written and the producers being completely against anything queer. At one point Roddenberry wanted gay background extras in a single scene in an episode where Picard goes to Risa, and even that was vetoed by the producers.
I'd like to hope a modern redo of the episode would be handled more tactfully, but given it was the early 90s, any mainstream gender identity stuff would've been wild to see on TV, bad as it is today.
It's definitely Not Good, but a lot of that comes from the time it was written and the producers being completely against anything queer. At one point Roddenberry wanted gay background extras in a single scene in an episode where Picard goes to Risa, and even that was vetoed by the producers.
I'd like to hope a modern redo of the episode would be handled more tactfully, but given it was the early 90s, any mainstream gender identity stuff would've been wild to see on TV, bad as it is today.