Posted on 10/27/2005 6:47:29 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
LOS ANGELES - George Takei, best known for his role as Mr. Sulu in "Star Trek," came out as homosexual in the current issue of a magazine covering the Los Angeles gay and lesbian community.
Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his new onstage role as psychologist Martin Dysart in "Equus," helped inspire him to publicly discuss his sexuality.
Takei described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man." The play opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out.
The current social and political climate also motivated Takei's disclosure, he said.
"The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay," he said. "The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young."
The 68-year-old actor said he and his partner, Brad Altman, have been together for 18 years.
Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, said he grew up feeling ashamed of his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation.
"It's against basic decency and what American values stand for," he said.
Takei joined the "Star Trek" cast in 1973 as Hikaru Sulu, a character he played for three seasons on television and in six subsequent films. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986.
A community activist, Takei ran for the Los Angeles City Council in 1973. He serves on the advisory committee of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and is chairman of East West Players, the theater company producing "Equus."
George Takei, who portrayed Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek television series, talks with a woman at a gathering of Japanese-Americans meeting in Little Rock, Ark., Friday, Sept. 24, 2004. Takei is one of more than 16,000 Americans of Japanese descent detained in southeast Arkansas internment camps in the aftermath of the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. (AP Photo/Danny Johnston)
No kidding he was always a little light in his space boots
The article has Takei joining the Trek cast in 1973 - that's years after the show was cancelled, and around the time of the animated series.
Uh, the series was from 1966 to 1969.
Or was this some kind of geek test? I know. I passed!!
Dollars to donuts a reference to this information passes Denny Crain's lips soon on Boston Legal.
But he could probably get a job with America's largest drugstore chain:
Walgreens: Let the (Gay) Games Begin
Good for him. I don't really care.
Guess he's been taking the photon torpedoes up the port side..
Thought he didn't like girls.
"He's queer, Jim."
This is, of course, not news.
Dammit Jim, he's gay!
This was a secret? Please. There was even a reference to it in an early Star Trek episode. (Uhuru: "No interest, Mr. Sulu?")
Whatever. He is, by thousands of accounts from folks who've met or worked with him, a really nice guy. We have a mutual friend, in fact, who attests that he is an extraordinary human being and lots of fun.
Whatever makes him happy is okay in my book. Press on, Mr. Sulu.
Oh my!!!
"very contained but turbulently frustrated man"
This line has a lot of potential.
Balloon knot.
That would be on the poop deck, wouldn't it?
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