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“Star
Trek’s” Mr. Sulu Tackles
The Final Frontier: Marriage Equality
Quest’s Mike
Fitzpatrick
Interviews HRC’s Equality Celebrity George Takei
For the last forty years he has been
known to literally billions of
“Star Trek” fans as Mr. Sulu. For nearly half as many years friends in
the Los Angeles
LGBT community have known him as the celebrity half of “Brad and
George.”
But it has only
been since last October that America at large
learned that 69 year old classically trained actor, human rights
activist and Howard Stern sidekick George Takei also happened to be
gay. The national struggle for marriage equality - and what he
considers a personal slap in the face by another famous film celebrity
- have sent the sonorous-voiced Takei on his new mission where no Star
Trek actor has gone before: a spokeperson for the Human Rights campaign.
The HRC starship
landed at UW-Madison Tuesday, April 18
for Takei’s latest stop in his month long equality lecture tour. Quest’s enterprising Mike
Fitzpatrick arranged what was to have been a brief, “five minutes
with”-type interview the morning after the speech.
However when a
long time Trekker has a close encounter with a
fan favorite and discovers they both share an unrequited love for gay
equal rights anything can happen - and did. What follows is just a
portion of the in-depth conversation Mike and George had on a variety
of issues.
Quest: For those who
could not be there, tell us about your lecture experience at UW-Madison
last night.
Takei: “It was a
tremendous reaction. I suspect that there ware a good number of ‘Star
Trek’ fans in the audience. But I was also taken by the sprinkling of
Asians and more mature people there. It predominantly young people, but
there was very good mix of people from the Madison area.
“It was also a
standing room only crowd. And when I finished the
was - and we actors love it - a standing ovation. The people that were
standing just remained that way - they didn’t sit down. It was very
gratifying.
“What I did
essentially is talk about my childhood in two U. S.
internment camps. We were rounded up with no due process - no charges,
no attorneys, no trial - simply because we happened to look like the
people who bombed Pearl Harbor. There was no rationale for it. It was
hysteria that put us behind those barbed wire fences. In many respects
its that same kind of hysteria today that puts (gay people) behind
legalistic barbed wire fences.
“What is the core
value of marriage? It’s two people who love
each other, who care for each other, who take responsibility for each
other.
“Yet our
adversaries talk about being ‘in defense of marriage.’
What are they being so defensive about?
“Let’s look at
their marriages. I guess they feel its very
fragile. About 50% of the marriages between a man and a woman wind up
in divorce. There’s lying, there’s infidelity, there’s spousal abuse.
“That’s not what
we’re talking about - the core value of
marriage (I mentioned before). If anything, we are affirming the true,
real values of what marriage is all about...”
Quest: As someone who
personally has worked for over a decade with Action and Fair Wisconsin,
I truly believe that we have an excellent shot at being the first state
to defeat a constitutional marriage and civil union ban at the ballot
box this November. What do you think would be the national impact of
such a victory?
Takei:
“You know, that
would be fantastic. But I am reluctant to talk about that because it
gives people too much confidence. You always run scared in an election
because we can sluff off if we think we’ve won before the fact. In an
election campaign I always believe in running scared - even if the
numbers are with us.”
Quest: What motivated you
to come out publicly at this point in your life and to speak on LGBT
equality issues?
Takei: “People call my
talking to the press (last October) my ‘coming out.’ But you know I’ve
been together with Brad Altman for almost 20 years now - 19 years.
We’ve been ‘out’ with our families and also with our friends. We’re
active in various (LGBT) community social and civic affairs. We’ve
contributed to various non-profits. Our names are literally carved in
granite on donor walls. So we’ve been ‘out’ in that sense.
“The only thing I
had not done was spoken to the press... The
reason I spoke to the press last year was (because) the California
legislature did an amazing thing, a historic landmark. They passed the
same-sex marriage bill, something even the Massachusetts legislature
had not done.
“All that was
required was the autograph of another actor who
happens to be the governor of the state of California - Arnold
Schwarzenaeger.
“When he
campaigned for office, he made all those ‘political
sounds.’ Those political moderate sounds. You know, he’s ‘from
Hollywood,’ he’s ‘worked with gays and lesbians’... You know the old
cliché: ‘some of my best friends are...’
“And a few that I
know voted for him in part because of those
statements. Well, he betrayed them when he played to the
reactionary right wing segment of his base. He vetoed that bill.
“It’s then I felt
I needed to speak out to the press. For me to
do that, my voice had to be authentic.
“Brad and I
discussed it and I spoke to the press for the first
time about our lives. Speaking to the press is considered by most
people to be ‘coming out.’ But its not true...”
Quest: Star Trek has
always had a huge gay following. What has been the response to your
decision to come out publicly in the Trekker community?
Takei:
“It has been
fantastic, across the board. My computer just exploded! The
overwhelming majority (of emails) have been very positive. Of course a
good number of them were ‘Star Trek’ fans. They dais that my being gay
has added just another dimension to their passion for ‘Star trek.’
“There also some
touching letters that I got. Fans who revealed
that they are gay or lesbian but are still closeted. They were
profoundly grateful that someone that they had watched over the last
forty years was ‘like them.’ They shared the anguish and their pain of
their lives with me. It was very moving.
“Yes, I got some
hate mail. The interesting thing was that they
were unanimously anonymous. I got first hate mail that was actually
signed last week...
“Their grammar
was so bad I couldn’t understand what they were
saying! And the vulgarity was just repulsive.”
Quest: Your decision to
speak out for our equality has caused your celebrity star to burn in
places where no man has gone before.
Takei: (laughs)
“We’re
boldly going!”
Quest: Has that had
any
impact on your partner Brad?
Takei: “Well, I’m
on the
road but Brad is equally, vicariously ‘on the road.’ He’s managing all
the media requests and various arrangements from Los Angeles. Brad is
very much a partner in this activity as well as in my life...”
Quest: What has
been your
worst experience on the road thus far?
Takei: “The worst
part of
it is the exhaustion at the end of the day. The unpleasant things have
been some of the emails we’ve gotten as I mentioned before...
Quest: What’s it
like to
work with Howard Stern?
Takei: (laughs)
“Well, I
really believe in reaching out beyond our (LGBT) community - not just
talk to ourselves. And Howard certainly provides me with a different
audience! That’s proved very effective. I’ve heard from many of
Howard’s listeners.
“Howard had an Arnold Schwarzenaeger imitator call me. And
I’m so easily bamboozled. I took him seriously and had a very lively
debate this Arnold imitator on the radio. I made all the usual argument
that I make. People listening called in and said ‘You know? You make
sense!’
These are people from places like North Carolina, Oklahoma, Nebraska
saying that is he issue comes up in their states they will support us...
Quest: Any final
words
for Quest’s readers?
Takei: “I just want
to
express my appreciation for their dedication to the cause. I think if
all of us - in whatever capacity, in whatever activity we’re engaged in
- share our lives, that’s the best campaign capacity for us to win full
equality. |
George
Takei Interview