NEWSFLASH! Sulu Gay! Not that there's anything wrong with that...

**Aurelian** · 10-28-2005, 05:33

Maybe not really a huge surprise. Partially explains years of bitchiness about William Shatner.

George Takei Discloses His Homosexuality

LOS ANGELES -
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.

Takei described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man." The play opened Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theater in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out.

The current social and political climate also motivated Takei's disclosure, he said.

"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."

The 68-year-old actor said he and his partner, Brad Altman, have been together for 18 years.

Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a U.S. internment camp from age 4 to 8, said he grew up feeling ashamed of his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation.

"It's against basic decency and what American values stand for," he said.

Takei joined the "Star Trek" cast in 1966 as Hikaru Sulu, a character he played for three seasons on television and in six subsequent films. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1986.

A community activist, Takei ran for the Los Angeles City Council in 1973. He serves on the advisory committee of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and is chairman of East West Players, the theater company producing "Equus." LINK

**Red Harvest** · 10-28-2005, 05:41

Is anyone surprised by this? Not that there is anything wrong with that... He always had that sort of speech pattern. I've known folks with similar patterns who weren't, but it was a tip off.

I heard some claim on the radio that Shepherd Smith and Anderson Cooper are gay. Wouldn't surprise me with make-up boy (but he did good work in New Orleans.)

**JAG** · 10-28-2005, 05:47

He should be locked up, he could hurt himself.

**GoreBag** · 10-28-2005, 06:24

I never suspected it. He was a pretty sweet swashbuckler on that episode of Star Trek, and he killed the vietnamese in that war movie...Firebase...something...a women's name...gah.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why he didn't grasp the "Hot, Wet Bitches" thing.

**Aurelian** · 10-28-2005, 06:47

Yeah, here's part of the article that outed Shepherd Smith:

"Shepard Smith, who hosts a popular program on Fox News and received widespread praise for his work covering Hurricane Katrina’s aftermath, also dodges questions about his sexual orientation.

Smith once chatted me up in a New York City gay piano bar, bought me drinks, and invited me back to his place. When I declined, he asked me to dinner the next night, another invitation I politely refused.

We sat at the bar chatting and drinking martinis until 3 a.m., our conversation interrupted only when he paused to belt out the lyrics to whatever showtune was being performed." LINK

That's classic: "our conversation interrupted only when he paused to belt out the lyrics to whatever showtune was being performed." I would PAY to see that on video.

The part about Anderson Cooper was less convincing because it didn't contain any personal experience, just the concept that Cooper hadn't been willing to discuss his sexuality openly.

Speaking of Anderson Cooper... He was on Letterman recently. Impressive stories. Apparently, he didn't have a job lined up after college, so rather than move back in with his mom, he decided to become a journalist by going to war zones. So, he got himself a camera, and some fake press credentials that a friend made in Photoshop, and he headed off for Burma. He spent 10 years wandering around the world, and apparently got a gig doing stories for that school news service that they were/are piping into classrooms first thing in the morning.

Letterman asked him if he'd ever been arrested, and Cooper told him about being arrested in Iran for taking pictures of fully veiled schoolgirls playing badminton in a park. He thought it was interesting. The police were less thrilled, so he spent three days in an Iranian jail staring at a picture of Ayatollah Khomeini. They let him go back to his hotel at night.

Eventually, he got a job as the host of the reality show "The Mole". Of course he now has his cable news gig.

There was more. Weird, but interesting, life.

**Kanamori** · 10-28-2005, 08:29

dud3, theres; no way that sulu could be gay, even if he was canadian.

**bmolsson** · 10-29-2005, 05:09

Does this gives the expression "beam me up Scotty" a totally new meaning ??

**The_Doctor** · 10-29-2005, 10:35

dud3, theres; no way that sulu could be gay, even if he was canadian.

I think your thinking of Scotty.

Does this gives the expression "beam me up Scotty" a totally new meaning ??

No, nobody ever said that.

**Devastatin Dave** · 10-31-2005, 19:08

I will put in a **** ****, smear myself in feces, and wear chaps in honor of this momentous occasion of Sulu telling the world of his perversions. Hooray....