Well, that wouldn't so much be his fault as much as people not having their preset expectations met, or people that get easily offended by topics that <when using logic and reason instead of blind faith and predisposition> otherwise wouldn't and shouldn't be offensive.
Good Sci Fi is supposed to make you question what you've taken for granted and go "hmm..." rather than simply "ooh and ahhh" at lens flares and excessive explosions.
Such as this last episode, "About A Girl", Where Bortus' newborn female is predisposed by Moklin societal norms to be reassigned male because females are considered as deformities in their world, despite there being no medical proof of need to do such operations. Initially this seems like a transgender issue, but it actually parallels an Intersex issue that is very real for an estimated 1 in every 1500 to 2000 births that are rushed into medically unnecessary surgeries to assign a sex from ambiguity. The episode also highlights the misogyny that is ingrained from decades of assumptions that females are not as capable as males.
This was the first episode written by Brandon Braga and parallels the tough discussions seen in Star Trek's
TNG episode s5e17 "The Outcast" and
ENT episode s2e22 "Cogenitor".
In "The Outcast," Riker falls in love with Soren, a member of an androgynous race known as the J'naii, who dares to be female. Despite his efforts to secure her asylum and a rescue attempt, Soren is forced into a psychotectic treatment (which parallels "gay conversion therapy"/brainwashing in this world.)
In Cogenitor, Trip befriends a special Vissian, but learns the species considers cogenitors (a third gender that makes up only 3% of that species ) as sex objects and less than slaves rather than actual citizens because of their enzymes necessary for the species to procreate. With Archer refusing asylum in lieu of hurting diplomatic relations during first contact with the species, the Cogenitor commits suicide. This also parallels the 46% suicide rate that is experienced in the LGBTQIA spectrum in the real world- almost all of which are by trans people that are often rejected, denied basic help, and ostracized because of strongly biased societal stigmas and factless disinformation.
SO like it or not, such topics shouldn't be considered political issues as much as they should be considered human rights issues. Granted that politicos have used such things like pawns for votes and press coverage, but such things shouldn't be used divisively. Other shows have gone there before, and Star Trek is sure to go there again in the future. I actually suspect that The Orville isn't done with the topic of Moklin females either... maybe they once had females in positions of power like a Queen to a Hive and something went wrong and that is now their way of ensuring they never have another Queen again, and now its just a closely guarded secret that most of their species just doesn't know about that part of their ancient history (nevermind off-worlders)... But still, the offense shouldn't be that they went there, it should be that we as a society aren't doing anything or enough about bettering such things, which in our society should be trivial- not condemning. it should also be noted that LGBTQIA people with these issues make up a very large portion of the sci fi fanbase too, of when need be, I shall be an ally to them.
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