Boldly going where no Star Trek star has gone before, actor George Takei kicked off his national gay-equality tour yesterday at Hillel.
Takei, best known for his role in the original Star Trek series as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, announced last year to the press that he is gay and has been with his partner, Brad Altman, for over 18 years. Takei is touring on behalf of the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest civil-rights organization for lesbians, gays and transsexuals.
Speaking of his time as a child in a California internment camp during World War II, Takei compared the current adversity faced by homosexuals in America to those of blacks, women and, more personally, Japanese Americans in the past.
"I'll never be able to forget that day when the U.S. Army came with bayonetted guns to take us away," Takei said. "But still today I see an invisible barbed wire fence that keeps me, my partner and others from a 'normal' life. What is abnormal is that we are not allowed [to marry]. What is outrageous is that people want to write that into law."
Takei revealed his motivation for coming out internationally after keeping his personal life private for decades. After the California legislature passed a same-sex marriage act, only to have the bill vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, Takei said he felt it was vital to talk to Congress and the press about his "authentic" take on the inequality faced by gays.
"Our democracy is a continuous and dynamic work in progress," Takei said. "And these movements to ban marriage are an egregious desecration of our Constitution. ... We've made remarkable progress in just my lifetime ... but not enough."
Takei said his difficulty in revealing his homosexuality was compounded by his Japanese heritage. Saying that Asian-Americans have developed a "conservative" nature due to challenges faced through the last two centuries, Takei sympathized with the struggles of a lesbian Asian woman in the audience.
"Asian families want to be as middle of the road, as American as possible," Takei said. "And anything but is troubling. We have to be part of the 'normal' community, to make it normal."
Ending his speech with the classic "live long and prosper" hand gesture that Star Trek popularized over 40 years ago, Takei acknowledged that though the show was known for putting diversity on television, there was no mention of homosexuality.
"Star Trek takes place in the 23rd century," Takei said. "By then, I hope that all forms of sexuality are the norm."
