For George Takei, coming out has been a lifelong process

At a young age, George Takei learned that he was different — and being perceived as different could be dangerous.

The actor who's best known for playing Hikaru Sulu on Star Trek spent his childhood in two internment camps during the Second World War, when people of Japanese descent were forcibly and wrongfully incarcerated across the U.S. and Canada. Takei wrote about that experience in his 2019 graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy.

After the war ended, Takei and his family moved to a low-income neighbourhood of Los Angeles where he quickly discovered that there was something else about him that made him different: he was attracted to other boys.

"I decided I didn't want to be different again," the actor tells Q guest host Talia Schlanger in an interview. "I started acting like the other boys…. I was able to build another kind of barbed wire fence, an invisible barbed wire fence that kept me confined in my body and not visibly identifiable."

Now, Takei has released a new graphic memoir, It Rhymes with Takei, which unpacks his experience living as a closeted gay man until 2005, when he publicly came out at the age of 68. In the book, he explains that coming out isn't as simple as opening a door — it's a lifelong process.

"I use the metaphor for a long, narrow, dark corridor," he says. "But then you come to a window that allows a little light in … and you keep walking down that corridor and you finally reach that doorknob and you make a decision: you grab it and you open it, ready for combat, if you will."

After being punished for his differences in childhood, it's understandable why Takei was fearful of revealing his true self. Even just 20 years ago, he thought disclosing his sexual orientation would mark the end of his career.

"But the very opposite happened," he says. "Media seemed to love it. And I started getting calls from CBS, NBC, ABC, from various magazine periodicals. They wanted to know the story behind gay George Takei. Or they wrote roles, like on The Big Bang Theory, for gay George Takei in my Star Trek uniform. And my career blossomed."

The full interview with George Takei is available on our YouTube channel and on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. He also talks about how his involvement with LGBTQ+ advocacy work has shaped who he is today. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.

Interview with George Takei produced by Cora Nijhawan.