Looking at the scene in which they meet, it is impossible for me to see how anyone could not see the sexual aspect of Garak’s predatory interest in the naive young doctor, “I do appreciate making new friends,” says Garak, leering, thrilled that Bashir has heard of him, offering discount apparel or “a bit of enjoyable company now and then.” Before he leaves, Garak squeezes Bashir’s shoulders and says again that he’s so glad to have made such an interesting new friend. I suppose that if all Cardassians were so effusive, it might be possible to interpret this as something other than an attempted pick-up, but in fact the only other Cardassian who ever leers as much as Garak toward Bashir is Dukat toward the Bajoran women he finds attractive. Even if Garak is only looking for a potential Starfleet ally in his double-agent spy games, how curious that he doesn’t attempt to appeal to Bashir’s intellect or medical curiosity, but instead checks him out and discusses how he’d look in a new suit. Considering that to this day Star Trek’s producers resist depicting gay people in the 24th century, Garak and Bashir make me positively gleeful.