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Star Trek star comes out
28/10/2005 12:23 - (SA)
Los Angeles - George Takei, best known for his role as Mr Sulu in Star Trek, came out as a homosexual in the current issue of a magazine covering the Los Angeles gay and lesbian community.
Takei told The Associated Press on Thursday that his role as psychologist Martin Dysart in the new play Equus inspired him to publicly discuss his sexuality.
Takei described the character as a "very contained but turbulently frustrated man".
The play opened on Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theatre in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out.
The 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 have been together for 18 years.
Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a US internment camp from the age of four to eight, 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.
- AP
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South Africa
