George Takei, who as helmsman Sulu steered the Starship Enterprise through three television seasons and six movies, has come out as a homosexual in the current issue of Frontiers, a biweekly Los Angeles magazine covering the 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.
[...]
"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."
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
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I imagine, considering some of the species they've encountered, the policy is "Don't ask. We can't tell."
Posts: 6394 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Good for him and his partner... but really, what's incredible is that he's SIXTY-EIGHT?? Holy crap! He looks amazing! What the heck does he eat?? Posts: 1681 | Registered: Jun 2004
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Dude, the Howard Stern show has been on to this story for years. You people are so behind the times Posts: 17164 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I loved that episode where he stripped down to the waist and swashbuckled all up and down the hallways. For no clear reason, except, I suppose, to show off that hot bod of his.
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This news came as no surprise at all to me. Just seemed to fit in with what I already suspected (no double meaning intended).
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I never thought about. Too busy looking at the bod. Dang, he's still hawt.
(Edit: I mean, 68 and still hawt! Not that his sexual orientation would have affected my opinion of his looks).
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
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He was extremely classy when I met him on a cruise. I was wearing a shirt that said "Just Married," because I was on my honeymoon. He saw me at the dock, walked up to me, shook my hand, and congratulated me.
I returned to Cor and said, "Guess what? Sulu just congratulated me on getting married!"
I always thought he came off as kind of bitter over the whole StarTrek experience when I'd heard him interviewed. I guess I can understand that, especially if he pretty much didn't like William Shatner.
I always figured he and Dr. McCoy were a couple, though.
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He is definitely a nice guy. He was known (don't know if he's doing it any more) for jogging with fans in the morning at cons. Posts: 13123 | Registered: Feb 2002
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Bob, are you sure you're not thinking of Koenig? He was extremely bitter (as was Doohan). Koenig also isn't especially nice to fans (not that this correlates to being bitter).
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*echoes Ic* Takei has always been fairly mum on the issue (at least in public), while a number of the others were happy to air their grievances publicly.
The only thing I've heard him be bitter about was the rules that meant that Star Trek reruns got pulled off SoCal TV stations when he was running for a local political office. (Otherwise the station had to give his opponent equal airtime.)
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I heard him say some rather pointed things about Shatner at one point. It could be that I just assumed he was like that all the time.
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Yeah, I figure hating Shatner is kind of like the only thing that kept the cast from using real phasers on each other.
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Good for him. He's been a hero of mine since I first started watching Trek.
I think there was some acrimony between Shatner and Takei (along with every other actor on the show, it seems), but everything I've heard indicates that Takei is a great guy at cons, extremely nice and patient.
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Wasn't Takei at one point pushing for an Excelsior TV series? We saw a bit of what that would be like on a Voyager ep, methinks.
Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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"I always figured he and Dr. McCoy were a couple, though." Hmmm.... (surruptitiosly wipes drool from chin)
Didnt someone in this forum recently post that "Kirk and Spock love" site? Man, there was lots of man love going around. I wonder how Ohura felt about all this?
Posts: 499 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Before TNG there was a lot of talk about a Excelsior show. Again, after TNG was winding down, they came out with ST-Brave New Worlds where Excelsior saves the day, and hinted of Excelsior. I thought it had potential. I hope it wasn't dropped, and replaced with say--Voyager--because they were afraid his sexuality would limit the show's potential.
I admit that a Star Trek show where a Kirk-like captain bedded a different Man every other week would not be too entertaining to me.
Posts: 11895 | Registered: Apr 2002
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Just because he's gay doesn't mean his CHARACTER is gay. Although I admit, I had a little bit of a jolt of 'awww' when I heard about this. I thought back to the shirtless fencing episode and wiped a tear away for history's women. But I waved a flag for history's men.
Can I help it if I like tiny asian men?
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Maybe now is a good time? I'd totally give a show starring Sulu a try. And hey, now maybe they can pull in the gay audience as well.
I never noticed much of a subtext between Kirk, Spock, or McCoy. Maybe I'm just oblivious, but where is it coming from? They're friends, but they never seemed all that attracted to each other.
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