Background

Originally named Hosato Takei, George Takei was born to Japanese American parents on April 20, 1937 in Los Angeles, California. When the boy was five, he and his family were confined for eight months in a World War II-era Japanese internment camp in Arkansas. Although Takei’s parents declined in January 1943 to profess their loyalty to the United States government, the family was eventually allowed to move back to Southern California. Takei later went on to attend the University of California at Berkeley before ultimately graduating from UCLA in 1960 with a B.A. degree in theater. He subsequently earned a master’s degree in theater from UCLA in 1964.

Takei is best known as the actor who portrayed Hikaru Sulu in the original Star Trek television series, in which he starred from 1966 to 1969. He has since made minor appearances in numerous television shows and films.

Budding Young Leftist

A self-described “community activist,” Takei has long been a supporter of leftwing causes and the Democratic Party. At the Democratic National Convention in 1972, he served as an alternate California delegate for presidential candidate George McGovern, who campaigned on what was arguably the most far-left platform in the party’s history up to that point in time. The following year, Takei ran unsuccessfully as a Democrat for the Los Angeles City Council.

From 1973 to 1984, Takei was on the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit District. He later joined the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission during the Bill Clinton presidency of the 1990s.

Takei’s Thoughts on Homosexuality & Gay Marriage

After then-California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill in October 2005 that would have legalized same-sex marriages in that state, Takei publicly announced that he himself was gay and had been dating a man for the preceding 18 years: “Why did I come out when I did? Because Schwarzenegger presented himself as a movie star who had worked and was friends with gays and lesbians, many of whom voted for him, but then vetoed that bill. I was so angry that I spoke to the press for the first time as a gay man at the age of 68.”

A member of the Human Rights Campaign, Takei in 2006 conducted an “Equality Track” speaking tour throughout the U.S. to actively discuss his homosexual lifestyle.

In a 2006 interview with radio icon Howard Stern, Takei recalled having been molested as a 13-year-old by his then-18-year-old camp counselor. Takei described the incident as “both wonderful and scary and kind of intimidating, and delightful.”

In 2007, Takei, as a response to former NBA player Tim Hardaway’s recent assertion that he hated gay people, recorded a satirical PSA for the Jimmy Kimmel Live program. In that video, Takei, pretending to caress an image of Hardaway, stated that he and other gay men were very fond of the ballplayer’s “large, powerful calves” and his “smooth, chocolatey head, glazed in man sweat.” He then told Hardaway that “one day, when you least expect it, I will have sex with you.”

In September 2008, the 71-year-old Takei legally “married” his 54-year-old partner, Brad Altman, at a California ceremony officiated by a Buddhist priest. The couple, both clad in white dinner jackets with black pants, entered the room to the tune of “One Singular Sensation” from the Broadway musical A Chorus Line.

In June 2013, Takei wrote an op-ed for The Washington Post to celebrate the Supreme Court’s decision to declare the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor. Signed into law by President Clinton in 1996, DOMA had defined marriage as a union between one man and one woman, and it had protected individual states from being required to recognize the legality of same-sex marriages performed in other states. By Takei’s telling, opposition to same-sex marriage was akin to past attitudes against desegregation and interracial marriages: “Future generations will shake their heads at how narrow, fearful and ignorant we sounded today debating DOMA.”

In May 2014, Takei was honored at the GLAAD Media Awards festivities.

In August 2014, Takei — a former boy scout himself — called for the Boy Scouts of America to allow openly gay men to remain in the organization after they reached the age of 18.

At a September 27, 2015 New York City Democrat fundraiser that also featured President Barack Obama, Takei commemorated and lauded the Supreme Court’s recent legalization of same-sex marriage.

2012 Appearance on Donald Trump’s Reality TV Series

In 2012, Takei appeared on Donald Trump’s reality television series, The Celebrity Apprentice.

Appearance in the Musical Play, Allegiance

Also in 2012, Takei’s personal recollections of the time he had spent in a Japanese internment camp inspired the production of a musical play titled Allegiance, which premiered on September 7 at The Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Takei said of the production:

“I see Allegiance as my legacy project. The story is very important to me and it’s been my mission in life to raise Americans’ awareness of that shameful chapter of American history. I think we learn more from those times in our history where we stumbled as a democracy than we learn from the glorious chapters. We have the history of slavery or inequality to women, and now the civil rights movement of the 21st century is the struggle for equality for the gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgender people. And I think it’s important for Americans to know about the times that we failed, and Allegiance tells that story.”

Allegiance eventually made its way to Broadway in 2015.

Opposing the Religious Freedom Restoration Act

In March 2015, Takei called for a boycott against the state of Indiana after then-Governor Mike Pence signed into law the Religious Freedom Restoration Act (RFRA), which was designed to strengthen legal protections for those with sincerely held religious beliefs – even if those beliefs ran counter to LGBT ideological orthodoxy. In response to the enactment of RFRA, Takei tweeted that “LGBTs aren’t 2nd class citizens.”

Calling Clarence Thomas “A Clown in Blackface”

Following Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ dissenting opinion in Obergefell v. Hodges — in which five liberal justices legalized same-sex marriage throughout the U.S. in June 2015 — Takei referred to Thomas as “a clown in blackface.” He also stated that Thomas “does not belong on the Supreme Court. He is an embarrassment. He is a disgrace to America.” In early July 2015, Takei defended his blackface comment as “not racist” and explained how it properly described Justice Thomas:

“Blackface” is a lesser known theatrical term for a white actor who blackens his face to play a black buffoon. In traditional theater lingo, and in my view and intent, that is not racist. It is instead part of a racist history in this country. I feel Justice Thomas has abdicated and abandoned his African American heritage by claiming slavery did not strip dignity from human beings. He made a similar remark about the Japanese American internment, of which I am a survivor. A sitting Justice of the Supreme Court ought to know better.”

Contempt for Donald Trump & His Supporters

Strongly opposed the presidential candidacy of Donald Trump in 2016, Takei accused Trump of “dehumanizing” Mexicans in a manner similar to what U.S. government had done to Japanese Americans during World War II. Speaking in Spanish, Takei stated in July 2016: “We [Japanese Americans] were targets simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. When Trump today says Mexicans are rapists and drug dealers, it is his way of similarly dehumanizing whole groups, so that he can set his plans in motion.” Claiming that Trump’s stance on immigration would eventually lead to the deportation of 100 times the number of people who had been forcibly placed in incarceration camps during World War II, Takei added: “Back then, they simply said, ‘A Jap is a Jap,’ and we lost our homes and freedom, even though two thirds of us were U.S. citizens. Today, Trump tells his supporters that a ‘Mexican is a Mexican.’” Exhorting Americans to “vote resoundingly against Trump” in the upcoming November election, Takei said in Spanish: “Donald Trump is a dangerous man, but your votes can ensure he never comes to power, and history does not repeat.” Takei endorsed Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton and defended her infamous “basket of deplorables” description of the people whom Takei described as “racist Trump supporters.”

In June 2019, Takei condemned the Trump administration’s enforcement of longstanding immigration laws that authorized the temporary separation of children from their illegal migrant parents detained at the U.S. southern border: “This nation has a long and tragic history of separating children from their parents, ever since the days of slavery. We must end this practice. It is barbaric.”

In an August 2019 interview with the Huffington Post, Takei warned that the “level of cruelty and evil” inherent in the Trump administration’s decision to enforce the laws authorizing the separation of illegal alien adults and their children, represented a “grotesque low” point in American history. “[Trump] is trying to say that he’s doing this in the name of America… We will not allow that,” said Takei. “We will not allow this to get the stamp of Americanism. This is a warped, ignorant and cruel evil form of Americanism that’s happening there.”

In December 2019, Takei tweeted that Trump voters: (a) “do not even realize they are enabling the desolation of our Republic,” and (b) “somehow think they are preserving America, but in fact they are helping destroy it. And that is a tragedy of enormous scope.”

Amid the outbreak and escalation of the coronavirus pandemic during March 2020, Takei took issue with President Trump’s use of the phrase, “Chinese virus.” Although the virus likely emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China, Takei said that Trump’s terminology had created “a cold chill throughout the Asian American community.” He also noted that Trump was “sending a signal to the haters in his constituency, and there are plenty of them there.” In a March 21 tweet, Takei wrote: “The coronavirus acts just like Trump. It gains a foothold and builds on ignorance. It grows because people don’t want to listen to science and the experts. It shuts down our borders and cuts us off from each other. And it’s a symbol of our utter lack of preparedness. #TrumpVirus”

Condemning American Racism & Supporting Black Lives Matter

In July 2016 as well, Takei visited the Japanese internment camp-turned historic landmark near Heart Mountain in Wyoming, where more than 14,000 Japanese Americans had been detained after Japan’s December 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor. Looking directly into the camera during an interview with MSNBC, he stated: “Black Lives Matter. Law enforcement officers are the ones that are shooting, because they are afraid of black men. The same sort of attitude placed us [Japanese Americans] behind these barb-wire fences.”

Supporting Jon Ossoff

In June 2017, Takei supported Democrat Jon Ossoff in a Georgia special congressional election over Republican Karen Handel.

Deriding Republican Steve Scalise

On June 17, 2017, Takei rebuked Republican Congressman Steve Scalise, who had been hospitalized after being shot nearly to death by a far-left activist during a Congressional Republican softball practice in Alexandria, Virginia days earlier. Takei tweeted: “The universe doesn’t joke around. The officer who saved bigoted, homophobic Rep. Steve Scalise during baseball practice was a black lesbian.”

After President Trump reversed an Obama-era policy that had allowed transgender people to serve in the U.S. military, Takei tweeted that Trump had “just pissed off the wrong community” and would “regret” the decision.

Controversial Boasts about Sexual Harassment

During the height of the #MeToo movement in 2017, an interview surfaced of a Takei appearance on The Howard Stern Show where he had boasted about having grabbed skittish men by the crotch. Takei now used his Facebook account to express remorse for remarks he claimed had been made entirely in jest. “Many have raised concern over a back-and-forth between Howard Stern and myself, where we joked about me touching men during my ‘Star Trek’ days 50 years ago,” Takei wrote. “Out of context, I agree that the joke was distasteful, and I’m very sorry he and I made fun out of a serious matter. For decades, I have played the part of a ‘naughty gay grandpa’ when I visit Howard’s show, a caricature I now regret. But I want to be clear: I have never forced myself upon someone during a date. Sometimes my dates were the initiators, and sometimes I was. It was always by mutual consent. I see now that that it has come across poorly in the awkward sketch, and I apologize for playing along with Howard’s insinuation.”

Denying Charges of Sexual Harassment

In November 2017, Takei was accused of having sexually assaulted a former male model named Scott R. Brunton, who alleged in an interview that the actor had groped him and tried to remove his underwear one night in 1981, when Brunton was 23. Takei dismissed the allegations, stating that “non-consensual acts are so antithetical to my values and my practices.” He also tweeted a graphic from the discredited left-wing project, Alliance for Securing Democracy, and portrayed the story as disinformation originating from “Russian bots.”

Supporting Joe Biden & Kamala Harris

In October 2020, Takei and 18 fellow cast members from five separate Star Trek series participated in a virtual fundraiser on behalf of Democratic presidential and vice presidential candidates Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The event also featured appearances by such notable Democrats as Andrew Yang, Stacey Abrams, Cory Booker, and Pete Buttigieg.

On January 27, 2021, Takei articulated the pleasure he was deriving from the avalanche of executive orders that President Joe Biden had signed during his first week in office: “Watching the GOP meltdown over Biden’s sensible and necessary executive orders makes me feel a certain way. What is it again? Oh yes. Smug. We won’t stop working toward a more just, equitable, and sustainable world. This drives them crazy…but I don’t really care. Do you?”

Supporting Colin Kaepernick

In November 2020, Takei tweeted that he wanted “to live in a country where Colin Kaepernick is seen as a hero and Kyle Rittenhouse is seen as a terrorist.”

• Kaepernick made national headlines beginning in 2016, when, as a gesture of protest against allegedly widespread police brutality and racial injustice in the United States, he knelt during the pre-game national anthem.
• On August 25, 2020 — during a violent Black Lives Matter/Antifa riot which followed an incident where a white Kenosha, Wisconsin police officer had shot and permanently disabled a knife-wielding black criminal named Jacob Blake — Kyle Rittenhouse, a 17-year-old white youth from Antioch, Illinois, drove to Kenosha, where his father resided, with the intent of: (a) helping to prevent further vandalism in that city, and (b) providing medical aid to people injured in the melee. At the scene of the unrest, Rittenhouse was armed with a semi-automatic rifle that had been purchased (with his money) and held for him by his friend Dominick Black, a resident of Kenosha. When various rioters chased Rittenhouse, threatened to kill him, and tried to take away his rifle, Rittenhouse used the weapon in self-defense. He was subsequently tried on six criminal charges which included homicide, reckless endangerment, and possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under the age of 18. A large number of leftists portrayed him as a racist, Trump-supporting white vigilante who had recklessly fired his gun at “social justice” and “racial justice” demonstrators in Kenosha. However, a jury eventually found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts.

Supporting the “For The People Act”

In March 2021, Takei expressed his support for H.R.1 (the “For the People Act”) — a 791-page piece of legislation whose enactment, according to the Heritage Foundation, would:

• “Seize the authority of states to regulate voter registration and the voting process by forcing states to implement early voting, automatic voter registration, same-day registration, online voter registration, and no-fault absentee balloting.”
• “Degrade the accuracy of registration lists by requiring states to automatically register all individuals (as opposed to “citizens”) from state and federal databases.”
• “Require states to count ballots cast by voters outside of their assigned precincts, overriding the precinct system used by almost all states that allows election officials to monitor votes, staff polling places, provide enough ballots, and prevent election fraud.”
• “Mandate no-fault absentee ballots, which are the tool of choice for vote thieves. It would ban witness signature or notarization requirements for absentee ballots; force states to accept absentee ballots received up to 10 days after Election Day as long as they are postmarked by Election Day; and require states to allow vote trafficking (vote harvesting).”
• “Prevent election officials from checking the eligibility and qualifications of voters and removing ineligible voters.”
• “Ban state voter ID laws by forcing states to allow individuals to vote without an ID and merely signing a statement in which they claim they are who they say they are.”
• “Require states to restore the ability of felons to vote the moment they are out of prison regardless of uncompleted parole, probation, or restitution requirements.”
• “Transfer the right to draw congressional districts from state legislatures to ‘independent’ commissions whose members are unaccountable to voters.”
• “[P]ermit the IRS to investigate and consider the political and policy positions of nonprofit organizations before granting tax-exempt status, thus enabling IRS officials to target organizations engaging in First Amendment activity with disfavored views.”

Nevertheless, Takei tweeted: “With voter suppression signed into law in Georgia and a slate of insidious proposals coming in across the country, the Senate has no choice but to pass the For the People Act. By any means necessary.”

Equating the Proposed Deportation of Illegal Aliens, with the WWII-Era Internment of Japanese Americans

In a series of tweets that he posted on February 19, 2024, Takei denounced former President Donald Trump for his pledge to deport a massive number of illegal aliens if he were to be re-elected to the White House in November. The actor equated the prospect of such deportations to President Franklin Roosevelt’s internment of people of Japanese descent who resided in the United States — and most of whom were American citizens — during World War II. Wrote Takei:

“On this day 82 years ago, on February 19, 1942, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, in the height of insanity of racism after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, signed Executive Order 9066.

“It ordered all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to be summarily rounded up and imprisoned within 10 barbed wire prison camps, with no charges, no trial, no due process.

“One day, a few months later, we saw two soldiers marching up our driveway, carrying rifles with shiny bayonets on them. They stopped up the porch right in front of our window and banged on the front door. My father answered, and one of the soldiers pointed the rifle at him, right in front of us, and ordered us out of our home. I had just turned five in April; it was May when they came to take us away.

“My father gave my brother Henry and me two heavy suitcases. And we brought them out onto the driveway and waited for our mother to come out. When she did, she had our baby sister in one arm, a huge duffel bag in the other, and tears were streaming down her cheeks.

“That is one morning that is seared into my memory. I will never be able to forget all the innocent people, my family included, who had nothing to do with Pearl Harbor, most of who were law abiding U.S. citizens, who were suddenly categorized as ‘enemy aliens.’

“Today, I hear terrifying words from political leaders today that once more raise the specter of what happened before, right here in America.

“Donald Trump and his allies are talking about rounding up 11 million people and putting them into mass detention camps before deporting them.

“There won’t be time for due process, to sort out who is documented and who is not. Homes will be lost. Businesses, too. Families will be torn apart. Lives will be ruined, over fear and ignorance, all to serve the ambitions and agendas of politicians.

“I know, because I lived through it. I say, never again. Not while I have one ounce of fight still left in me.

“Join me. Fight this madness. Help keep America from repeating the mistakes of its past.”

Takei also condemned Republican U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, and predicted that GOP Members of Congress would exploit a Venezuelan illegal alien’s recent murder of a 22-year-old nursing student named Laken Riley to justify the creation of modern-day internment camps for all people living in the United States illegally. “I know your type of politician,” Takei wrote in a social media post directed to Johnson. “Men like you smeared my [Japanese] community during World War II by preying upon people’s fears of others who didn’t look like them. It led to the internment and 125,000 shattered lives. Never again.”

Takei’s Massive Wealth

As of April 2023, Takei had an estimated net worth of $14 million.