Ar'alani and Karyn Faro are unfortunately perfect examples of the above post by desolationlesbian of major female characters who are reduced to token background lesbians by shippers. As a huge fan of both Ar'alani and Faro as characters, I find it immensely frustrating, to the extent that the Thrawn shipping fandom has utterly turned me off on both Thranto and Ar'alani/Faro ships.
-As a lesbian myself, I loathe the Designated Lesbian Syndrome with a passion, because this phenomenon is literally tokenism, specifically tokenisation of lesbians. As a consequence, I have reached the point where when it comes to fandoms with big Male/Male (M/M) ships that are not canon, I only trust lesbian headcanons from fellow lesbians. Yes, this means I do not trust leabian Ar'alani and Karyn Faro headcanons from people who are not lesbians.
+As a lesbian myself, I loathe the Designated Lesbian Syndrome with a passion, because this phenomenon is literally tokenism, specifically tokenisation of lesbians. As a consequence, I have reached the point where when it comes to fandoms with big Male/Male (M/M) ships that are not canon, I only trust lesbian headcanons from fellow lesbians. Yes, this means I do not trust lesbian Ar'alani and Karyn Faro headcanons from people who are not lesbians.
I really hate that it comes to this because as a lesbian, in theory I am in favour of lesbian headcanons for female characters who are cishet-coded or who do not have a canon sexuality. Unfortunately, lesbian headcanons have been used as a progressive way to get female characters out of the way of Male/Male ships (and occasionally Male/Female ships as well, though this phenomenon is more common in fandoms of M/M ships), not because these shippers actually care about lesbians and the female characters.