George Takei

Episode notes

Photo: Daniel Speer/Maximum Fun

There is one version of George Takei you probably know: the guy who played Commander Sulu on the original Star Trek series. There’s also George Takei, the social media presence. He’s got nearly ten million followers on Facebook. Another four million on Instagram and X.

Then, there’s George Takei, a child living with his family in Boyle Heights, Los Angeles. In 1942, American soldiers showed up in his driveway and forcibly removed Takei and his family. They were incarcerated first at a local horse racing track, then near a swamp in Arkansas, then at a remote mountain camp near the border of Oregon and California.

Lastly, there’s the George Takei who, until he was 68, stayed in the closet. When he did come out as a gay man in 2005, he did so not because he felt especially comfortable doing so, but because the then governor of California had vetoed a bill that would have allowed marriage equality. 

Takei has a new book out called It Rhymes With Takei. It’s a memoir that focuses on Takei’s journey of discovering an important part of his identity, hiding it, and how it felt to finally come out publicly. Takei talks to Bullseye about this, as well as his experience living in incarceration camps, and his roots in Los Angeles.