From Digital Spy:
Star Trek star George Takei has come out in an interview with Frontiers, an LGB magazine based in Los Angeles.
Takei, famed for his role as Captain Sulu in the original Star Trek series and six subsequent movies, took the opportunity to launch a stinging attack on anti-gay bigotry in modern America.
"It’s not really coming out," Takei explained to the magazine, "...It’s more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen."
In the interview, Takei revealed that he has been in a long-term relationship with his partner, Brad Altman, for eighteen years.
In a poignant moment, Takei disclosed a very personal tale of family acceptance.
"You know, I’ve not had a good experience with one sibling. And I won’t be specific because it’s still a problem," he said. "My mother, initially, had some adjustments to make, but she got to like Brad very much."
Takei then widened the discussion to include recent political events in California, where he lives. In particular, he had strong words for that state's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently vetoed an act of the California State Assembly that would have made marriage gender-neutral.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger is like some of those duplicitous Southern politicians who would say one thing and yet maintain segregation in the South," said Takei. "And that’s what he’s doing here. He’s a dangerous politician."
Takei drew on his experiences in the 1960s US civil rights movement to place the fight for gay rights in America into a wider context - and also expressed hope that like African Americans, gay Americans may one day overcome "archreactionary conservatives."
"The Bible-thumping religiosos are not the holders of the truth, and yet they are the ones who want to impose their truth-and I respect their truth, if they find it for their strength and their guidance through life-but for them to impose that on the rest of society, the rest of America, I think is just as corrupt as the segregationists trying to impose racial segregation in the South," he said.
Takei, famed for his role as Captain Sulu in the original Star Trek series and six subsequent movies, took the opportunity to launch a stinging attack on anti-gay bigotry in modern America.
"It’s not really coming out," Takei explained to the magazine, "...It’s more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen."
In the interview, Takei revealed that he has been in a long-term relationship with his partner, Brad Altman, for eighteen years.
In a poignant moment, Takei disclosed a very personal tale of family acceptance.
"You know, I’ve not had a good experience with one sibling. And I won’t be specific because it’s still a problem," he said. "My mother, initially, had some adjustments to make, but she got to like Brad very much."
Takei then widened the discussion to include recent political events in California, where he lives. In particular, he had strong words for that state's governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who recently vetoed an act of the California State Assembly that would have made marriage gender-neutral.
"Arnold Schwarzenegger is like some of those duplicitous Southern politicians who would say one thing and yet maintain segregation in the South," said Takei. "And that’s what he’s doing here. He’s a dangerous politician."
Takei drew on his experiences in the 1960s US civil rights movement to place the fight for gay rights in America into a wider context - and also expressed hope that like African Americans, gay Americans may one day overcome "archreactionary conservatives."
"The Bible-thumping religiosos are not the holders of the truth, and yet they are the ones who want to impose their truth-and I respect their truth, if they find it for their strength and their guidance through life-but for them to impose that on the rest of society, the rest of America, I think is just as corrupt as the segregationists trying to impose racial segregation in the South," he said.