Mr. Sulu was gay! I knew it!

[yesthattom]

http://www.afterelton.com/people/2005/10/takei.html

George Takei, better known as Mr. Sulu from three seasons (and six movies) of the hit TV series Star Trek, has casually come out in a new interview with Frontiers magazine. “Brad’s my partner, we’ve been together for 18 years,” Takei tells Frontiers. “I’ve been ‘open,’ but I have not talked to the press.”

Gosh, everyone you worked with knew, the entire gay community knew, *I* knew. I’m glad he’s come out!

Comments

[dariodevil.livejournal.com]

Howard Stern & Co. chopped up a bunch of audiobooks Takei recorded, making it sound like he's saying he craved the cock (particularly Shatner's). It was hysterical, given Takei's trademark android-even voice, so it didn't even sound edited together. Shatner thought it was hysterical. Maybe he knew all along?

And I didn't know, for the record. But I rarely pay attention to the sexuality of those over the age of 40.

[sweh.livejournal.com]

I didn't know, and I don't particularly care, to be honest :-) I'm one of these people who watch shows for the characters, not the actors. Indeed I consider it bad when the actor is visible as the actor (eg Ben Browder joined Stargate SG1 and acted just like Crichton, which was out of place and felt wrong and drew your attention to it being "Ben Browder" and not "colenel Mitchell").

Anyway, when I first watched Star Trek I must have been under 8 years old (maybe under 7; can't recall if I watched it in the house we moved out of in 1976) and the concept of "gay" hadn't entered my head at that point :-)

Besides, isn't 90% of the entertainment community gay? I recall a fun conversation with a gay friend back in England (before I came out into the BDSM scene and discovered I'm slightly kinked for bi-) that all of the good programmes and films and stuff from the BBC were due to the gay people driving the creative process :-)

[sweh.livejournal.com]

How did I mispell "Colonel" so badly, I wonder... huh

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

You could have spelled it Kernel? :-)

[sweh.livejournal.com]

The way Browder initially played Mitchell it could easily have been "Colonel^WKernel Panic"!

[ckd]

I didn't know; since I wasn't planning to ask him out, I didn't have any particular reason to need to know, either. That doesn't mean I'm not glad he felt able to come out more completely.

[kimuchi.livejournal.com]

Good for him. I'm kind of surprised he didn't come out earlier considering his political activities.

I met him years ago and I didn't realize he was gay, he just seemed very professional and pleasant.

[dariodevil.livejournal.com]

Great Fark headline:

Star Trek's Mr. Sulu comes out. Set phasers to fabulous

[holzman.livejournal.com]

I'm finding it quite reminiscent of Rob Halford's coming out, surprising no one but the Advocate magazine, whose interviewer was all set to do a story about his long years of hiding his homosexuality from the rest of the band, only to have Halford's first words be "Judas Priest has always been aware of my homosexuality."

Poor interviewer never did manage to get back on track after that.

[freeko.livejournal.com]

What do Rob Halford's Homosexuality and Jose Canseco's Steroid Use have in common? They were amongst the worst kept secrets. I remembering hearing about Halford being gay as early as 1983. My buddy who is a big Judas Priest fan said "I Dont Care If He is Gay, as long as he still rocks and does not start signing showtunes, he is alright with me" As for Canseco I rememeber being among the fans that chanted Steroids! Steroids! everytime Canseco came up to bat for the A's back in 1991. It was funny because he came over and threatened us.

[holzman.livejournal.com]

I've listened to conversations amongst some of the less clueful metalheads where they try to find hints over the years that Halford is gay. My contribution tends to be along the lines of, "You mean other than the fact that the band's been dressing like a bunch of leather daddies for the last 30 years?

[kingfox.livejournal.com]

Look at any other band who sprung onto the NWOBHM scene after Priest, and you can see the leather daddy influence. Watching Metal Mania's videos some nights reminds us all how obvious it really was.

[logisticslad.livejournal.com]

As far as I knew, this had been an open secret in the Trek community for many years. I remember stories of constaff booking rooms for him and his partner. Good for him for choosing to be more public.

[sextrmental.livejournal.com]

Awesome!!

[auntiemisha.livejournal.com]

Hmm, somehow I thought he had already come out? Maybe I just thought so because of casual trekkie conversations.

So is someone only "out" if they come out to the press, or is it a level of "out"? What if he's told the press but not some relatives who don't follow the press? (I've been watching too much daytime TV, with show where people say things like "I haven't told my family I'm , but they'd never watch this show.")

[okelle.livejournal.com]

He always was a little light in the loafers... er, space boots ;-)

Which just goes to show that in the future, all Chinese men are gay. Right?

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Fabulous! (had to comment to use my lovely icon of him!)

You said it with such authority all those years ago

[mrfantasy.livejournal.com]

I thought everyone knew. After all, he admits he really hasn't been hiding it, just not telling interviewers.

The cynic in me things this is good publicity for the play he's in. Which is fine.

[dr-memory.livejournal.com]

Apparently I am the only person in the entire fanverse who didn't know, which is really embarrassing since I always thought he was by far the hottest member of the original cast.

[selki.livejournal.com]

Nope (only), and yep (hottest -- well, as far as the guys). :-)