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Hikaru Sulu is now known as the first openly gay character in   Star Trek , but the character's sexuality hasn't always been so clear-cut. Sulu's romantic and family life have received different portrayals across the  Star Trek  canon, causing his sexuality to be a point of contention amongst audiences and cast members alike.  Star Trek  has always been known for being a progressive and inclusive franchise, so it's important to have some clarity when it comes to how sexuality is depicted, especially when it comes to a character as well-loved as Sulu.

Sulu first appeared as the swashbuckling helmsman who was part of Captain Kirk's (William Shatner) bridge crew in  Star Trek: The Original Series . Played by George Takei, Sulu was an important source of Asian-American on-screen representation in the 1960s. Takei's Sulu remained part of the  Star Trek franchise for three seasons and six movies.

Related:  Why The Star Trek Reboot Cast Is Better Than The Original Series'

In 2009, J.J. Abrams made  Star Trek,  the first in a series of alternate timeline films following the characters from  Star Trek: The Original Series.  In these films, Sulu is portrayed by John Cho. Cho has said that his only hope going into playing Sulu was to deepen the character's emotional life. For the writers of  Star Trek: Beyond ,  Simon Pegg and Doug Jung, this meant offering an insight into Sulu's sexuality in a way that  Star Trek: The Original Series  never did.

George Takei's Sulu & Daughter Explained

In Star Trek: The Original Series there were a few episodes where Sulu was shown to have female love interests including an implied attraction to Lieutenant Uhura, which never amounted to anything. However because Sulu's character was often side-lined , his romantic life was never a main plot point as those narratives were regularly reserved for Captain Kirk. In  Star Trek: Generations  Sulu's daughter, Demora Sulu (Jacqueline Kim) worked as a helmsman of the USS-Enterprise-B. Upon meeting her, Admiral Kirk wondered, " when did [Sulu] find the time to have a family? ", a question which was echoed by many fans and Takei himself.

In the  Star Trek  novel, The Captain's Daughter, Sulu and his best friend Chekov went to the holiday resort of Demora. Sulu met a woman called Susan Ling and they had a one-night stand. After her death, Sulu learned that Susan gave birth to their daughter, Demora. Initially, Sulu planned on sending Demora to boarding school but ultimately decided to raise her himself. Demora was referenced in several other  Star Trek  novels and video games, though she and her father have never been seen together on-screen.

John Cho's Star Trek Beyond Sulu Explained

In 2005, 36 years after  Star Trek: The Original Series  ended , Sulu's original actor, George Takei, publicly came out as gay. Since then he has become known as a prominent LGBTQ+ activist. Wanting to honor this legacy, Simon Pegg came up with the idea of having Sulu be gay in J.J. Abram's 2016  Star Trek: Beyond.  John Cho supported the idea, as did Zachary Quinto, the actor who played Spock and who publicly came out as gay in 2011.

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Sulu's husband, Ben (Doug Jung), and their daughter, were seen in the film greeting him when the Enterprise landed at the base. They later escaped from the Krall's attack and then the whole family attended Kirk's 30th birthday party together. John Cho was the one to insist that Sulu's husband also be of Asian descent, in order to address the LGBTQ+ prejudices that can be found in Asian communities.

Why Takei Was Upset That Sulu Became Gay

Takei publicly disagreed with writer and  Scotty actor, Simon Pegg  about the plan to make Sulu gay. He said that Gene Roddenberry, the creator of  Star Trek,  created Sulu as heterosexual and in an interview (via  THR )   Takei stated it was " unfortunate " that Roddenberry's vision would be changed. While he wholeheartedly supported the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters in  Star Trek,  he thought a new character should be created instead of making Sulu canonically gay.

However, Pegg believed that they were honoring Roddenberry's vision. He believed that Roddenberry would have definitely wanted to explore characters with different sexual orientations, but it was too risky for him to ever do so.  Star Trek: The Original Series  was famous for pushing the boundaries of 1960s conservativism with its vision of a utopic future society. The show featured the first televised interracial kiss, between Captain Kirk and communications officer  Lieutenant Uhura (Nichelle Nichols) , which caused its lowest-ever ratings and risked it being taken off the air. Pegg was also wary of Takei's advice to create a new character simply to fulfill the purpose of having a gay character, as he thought that would limit the character to tokenism.

Was Sulu Gay In The Wider Star Trek Canon?

Outside of the TV series and films, Sulu's career advancement received more development than his personal life, so there were rarely any direct references to his sexuality. The fact that his daughter existed in many of the novels and games doesn't preclude the possibility that Sulu might be gay. In the video game  Star Trek: Starship Creator,  Sulu married a woman named Yoshika, but even this doesn't mean the character is heterosexual.

Related:  How To Watch Every Star Trek Series & Movie In The Right Order

Both George Takei's continued involvement in the Star Trek  world and the important representation created by John Cho's Sulu have contributed to making  Star Trek a more diverse franchise . Despite the fact that there's not as much clarity around Sulu's sexuality as there could be, it would be wrong to call Sulu's characterization inconsistent because of this. Since Gene Roddenberry's  Star Trek: The Original Series  and J.J. Abrams'  Star Trek  exist on different timelines, it's possible to say that both a straight Sulu and a gay Sulu exist as part of the multiverse's canon. With the fourth  Star Trek   movie currently under development, many fans hope to see more exploration of Sulu's sexuality and his family life.

Next:  Strange New Worlds' Success Makes Star Trek 4 Even Harder To Pull Off

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Simon Pegg ‘Respectfully Disagrees’ With George Takei Over Sulu’s Sexuality

O n Thursday, the Herald Sun announced that the character Hikaru Sulu will be revealed to be gay in Star Trek Beyond , which hits theaters July 22. It was welcome news for many who have criticized the otherwise progressive franchise’s lack of LGBT representation since the initial show went on the air in 1966.

But one person disappointed with the news is the person it was perhaps most aimed to please, or at least to honor. George Takei , who played Sulu in the original show and who has been a prominent LGBT activist since coming out as gay just over a decade ago, told the Hollywood Reporter that he has been against revealing the character as gay since he first heard it was under consideration last year.

“I’m delighted that there’s a gay character,” Takei told THR . “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.” Takei is referring here to Gene Roddenberry, the creator of Star Trek , whom he says was painstakingly thorough in his character development, which included a vision for Sulu as heterosexual.

Takei has been a proponent of LGBT representation in the franchise from early on, when, though he was still in the closet himself, he discussed the idea with Roddenberry. The latter, who had seen the show take a ratings hit after a 1968 episode featuring an interracial kiss, feared that too much boundary-breaking too soon might spell the end of the show.

But Takei didn’t envision it would be his own character who would end the franchise’s streak of LGBT invisibility, and he said as much to John Cho, who plays Sulu in the new trilogy, when they discussed the idea last year. He believed it made more sense to create a new character who has always been gay, rather than bringing Sulu out of a presumed closet. He hoped Star Trek Beyond writer Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin would take this direction and expressed disappointment upon learning that they had not.

Pegg responded to Takei’s criticism Friday morning, telling the Guardian that he respectfully disagrees with the actor’s position. He said that he comes from a place of utmost respect for Takei, and agrees that it’s disappointing that “the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn’t featured an LGBT character until now.” But he also expressed a concern, which he discussed with Lin and co-writer Doug Jung, that a new gay character may have been perceived by the audience as a token gay character, “primarily defined by their sexuality.”

Pegg believes Roddenberry’s decision not to develop a gay character earlier was a product of his time, not of his vision. He continued that he, Lin and Jung “loved the idea of it being someone we already knew because the audience have a pre-existing opinion of that character as a human being, unaffected by any prejudice. Their sexual orientation is just one of many personal aspects, not the defining characteristic.” Based on the movie’s timeline, the decision to make Sulu gay does not necessitate his having been in the closet, Pegg explains, and it presumes that there has been an LGBT presence since the beginning of the franchise’s universe.

THR reports that Takei, who has not yet addressed Pegg’s response, isn’t necessarily done with Sulu, no matter the decisions around his sexual orientation. Pointing to Leonard Nimoy’s cameos in Star Trek movies later in his career, Takei says he’s open to the possibility of appearing in the forthcoming reboot of the show, if invited. “There’s no reason why an ancient, wise Admiral Sulu can’t appear, or maybe an alien creature who sounds like me,” he says. “That should be fun.”

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Star Trek Just Beat Star Wars to a Pretty Important Milestone

By Joshua Rivera

Space, as the saying goes, is the Final Frontier. It is vast, infinite, and full of possibility. It is also the primary setting of several of our most beloved entertainment science fiction franchises, Star Trek and Star Wars . But, despite multiple movies spanning decades and planets and alternate timelines across both long-running franchises, neither has yet featured a gay character.

This is strange, since half the joy of these stories is seeing all kinds of life, whether it be in a Mos Eisley Cantina or a busy space station. You'd think some kind of gay person would populate one of these vast universes, since many gay people populate our own comparably tiny planet. But for some reason, they've been lost in all the Trekking and Warring.

No longer, says Star Trek Beyond star John Cho, who plays Hikaru Sulu in the rebooted movie franchise. Stopping by Australia while on the promotional tour for the movie (which opens in the U.S. on July 22), Cho revealed that *Beyond * writer/co-star Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin decided to make his character openly gay as an homage to George Takei, who played Sulu in the original television series and has become a prominent voice in LGBTQ activism. The cast also took time to remember Anton Yelchin, who starred in all three rebooted Trek films and tragically died last month .

Sulu's sexuality is, in true Star Trek fashion, not a big deal—according to reports, the character is shown to have a daughter with a male partner—which is in keeping with the franchise's idyllic take on the future, where humanity is more or less done fighting each other and fully committed to exploring. Sulu will be Star Trek 's first openly gay character. Star Wars has none.

That's not to say Star Wars couldn't, however, or that it doesn't have any potential to have any. Just ask folks around the Internet. They have some ideas.

‘Star Trek Beyond’ confirms that Hikaru Sulu is gay

According to ‘star trek beyond,’ the helmsman of the starship enterprise is canonically gay..

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw

Internet Culture

Posted on Jul 7, 2016     Updated on May 26, 2021, 12:05 pm CDT

During a promotional event in Australia , John Cho confirmed that beloved Star Trek character Hikaru Sulu is gay.

Sulu was originally played by George Takei , who in later life has become a prominent activist for LGBT rights. In a tribute to his ongoing legacy as an icon of the Star Trek franchise,  writer Simon Pegg and director Justin Lin decided make Sulu canonically gay in the upcoming movie.

“I liked [Pegg and Lin’s] approach, which was not to make a big thing out of it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations,” Cho said. 

While Hollywood still has a long way to go in terms of queer representation , it feels appropriate for Star Trek to be the first big sci-fi franchise to include a gay character in its main cast. Beginning with its diverse casting and powerful political allegories of the 1960s series, Star Trek has always presented an optimistic and progressive view of the future.

With Hikaru Sulu, Star Trek Beyond  is setting a couple of important precedents. First of all, this revelation makes it clear that long-established characters (like, for example, superheroes) do not have to follow the “assumed straight” sexual mores of the period in which they were created. Secondly, Sulu paves the way for more queer characters in Star Trek ‘s future—and we’re certain to see this happen in Bryan Fuller ‘s new TV series next year.

BONUS: I watched ’60s Trek  for the first time, and it was awesome

*First Published: Jul 7, 2016, 9:56 am CDT

Gavia Baker-Whitelaw is a staff writer at the Daily Dot, covering geek culture and fandom. Specializing in sci-fi movies and superheroes, she also appears as a film and TV critic on BBC radio. Elsewhere, she co-hosts the pop culture podcast Overinvested. Follow her on Twitter: @Hello_Tailor

'Star Trek Beyond's Sulu Is the Franchise's First Gay Character

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While promoting  Star Trek Beyond  in Sydney, Australia, a surprising bit of news was revealed that had little to do with the plot of director  Justin Lin's upcoming film and everything to do with a famous franchise character. It's been confirmed that USS Enterprise helmsman Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu is, in fact, gay. That makes Sulu the first openly gay character in the storied franchise. And it took until 2016 to make that happen.

As the Herald Sun reports, there's a scene in  Star Trek Beyond in which Sulu ( John Cho ) and his same-sex partner are shown with their daughter; the scene itself downplays the sociocultural importance of such a reveal. Sulu's sexuality in the new film as an homage to actor and LGBT activist  George Takei , who famously played Sulu in the 60s  Star Trek series and the first six feature films in that franchise; Cho confirmed that writer  Simon Pegg and Lin made the decision with Takei and changing social mores in mind:

“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out [of] it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicise one’s personal orientations.”

Longtime fans of Star Trek might enjoy the irony that the future-set franchise is finally starting to catch up with modern demographics; Sulu's sexuality is just as important as the appearance of African-American actor  Nichelle Nichols starring in the prominent role of communications officer Lieutenant Uhura in the 60s series. This was the show that featured the first interracial kiss seen on TV, so it clearly has a long history of pushing social boundaries.

Now, before folks out there start criticizing Paramount or the filmmakers of pushing some kind of "gay agenda," ask yourself this question: In a show about the far-flung future in which a team of intrepid space explorers do their best to interact with alien species, exotic cultures, and a vast array of different cultures in as peaceful a way as possible, wouldn't it make  less sense for zero gay humans to be present?

Pegg himself chimed in over social media:

Despite the celebratory atmosphere of Sulu's pride and the film's upcoming release, emotions were still raw about the loss of fellow  Star Trek Beyond cast member  Anton Yelchin , who died in a freak accident earlier this year. Here's what co-star Karl Urban had to say about him:

“It’s bittersweet with the passing of Anton. It’s devastating losing someone in your family — this feels like it should be a time for celebration not just of the film but of him, his extraordinary talent and the beautiful man he was. I’m having a difficult time coming to grips with talking about him in the past tense — it’s very raw and very painful.”

For more on all things  Star Trek , take a look at some of our recent write-ups below:

• The Smithsonian Channel Is ‘Building Star Trek’ to Celebrate the 50th Anniversary
• ‘Star Trek': Bryan Fuller to Moderate Star-Studded 50th Anniversary Comic-Con Panel
• Final ‘Star Trek Beyond’ Trailer Hits with Rihanna’s “Sledgehammer”
• ‘Star Trek Beyond’ to Screen Early in IMAX via AMC Theaters Marathon
• The Official ‘Star Trek’ Fan Film Guidelines Have No Chill

John Cho’s Sulu is officially Star Trek’s first openly gay character

by Caroline Framke

Star Trek Beyond may be the third film in a blockbuster franchise based on several long-running television shows, but according to star John Cho , it’s still managed to find a way to make history in the Star Trek universe.

In an interview with Australia’s Herald Sun , Cho has revealed that the version of Sulu he plays in Star Trek Beyond — based on George Takei ’s original character in Star Trek — is gay. That makes him the first openly gay character in Star Trek ’s history.

Cho also said that Star Trek Beyond co-writer Simon Pegg (who also plays Scotty in the movie) and director Justin Lin intended for the character’s sexual orientation to be a nod to Takei, who came out in 2005 after decades of silence and has been a vocal activist for gay rights ever since.

"I liked the approach," said Cho of how Star Trek Beyond handles Sulu’s sexuality, "which was not to make a big thing out it. Which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations."

But no matter how casual the inclusion of a gay crew member may be in the movie itself, the choice is a big one in terms of both the Star Trek canon — which has never before explicitly stated that a main crew member is anything but straight — and for sci-fi blockbusters in general, which still rarely include queer characters despite ostensibly taking place in worlds far removed from our Earth’s prejudices.

Brandon Nowalk’s wonderful and thorough article for the A.V. Club on the persistent straightness of sci-fi details exactly how big a deal an openly gay character is for Star Trek in particular, which has tried and failed to include one before:

A month before casting began on Star Trek: The Next Generation , [series creator Gene] Roddenberry admitted , "We should probably have a gay character on Star Trek ." That didn’t happen. But at least there was a gay writer in the room, David Gerrold, who wrote a first-season script telling an AIDS allegory via a guest actor concerned about his sick boyfriend. It was scrapped. At the start of the fifth season, Roddenberry promised the series would finally get into queer stories, and there would be gay crewmen on the Enterprise . He died before realizing his vision, and 20 seasons of Star Trek later, we’re still waiting for someone to catch his baton. Time and again, space shows fail to represent the future their own producers believe in. According to TV, the future is feminist, racially diverse, and straight as an arrow. Why are there no gay characters in Star Trek ? After Trek writer Ronald D. Moore left the franchise, he put it bluntly : "There is no answer for it other than people in charge don’t want gay characters in Star Trek ."

Fast-forward to 2016, when former Star Trek director J.J. Abrams — who still produces the movies while also working on the new Star Wars films — acknowledged that the infinite possibilities of science fiction could and absolutely should include varying sexualities. He even promised in February that we would eventually be seeing gay characters in the ever-expanding Star Wars universe.

Promises are nice and all, but action is better, and a nonchalantly gay Sulu on Star Trek is perhaps the first sign of a notable shift toward LGBTQ inclusion in sci-fi. Hopefully he’ll be just the first of many more characters like him to come.

Update: Takei has now responded to the decision, telling The Hollywood Reporter in no uncertain terms that he does not support it:

"I’m delighted that there’s a gay character. Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene [Rodberry]’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate."

Takei went on to say that while Cho, Pegg, and Lin consulted with him ahead of time, that he in turn pushed back against the idea that making Sulu gay could honor him when he and Rodberry had always viewed the character as heterosexual — and was disappointed when Pegg and Lin pushed ahead with the plan, regardless of his opposition.

Star Trek Beyond opens in US theaters on July 22.

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Sulu Revealed as Gay in Star Trek Beyond , According to John Cho

The movie is going to boldly go where the franchise has never gone before.

Star Trek Beyond is going to boldly go where the franchise has never gone before.

Hikaru Sulu, a main character played by  John Cho , will be Star Trek 's first on-air LGBT character. In Star Trek Beyond , the third in the rebooted franchise, Sulu is shown to be gay and in a same-sex relationship. He and his partner are also parents to a daughter.

Cho revealed the news in an interview published in the Australian newspaper The Herald Sun  Thursday. He said director  Justin Lin and co-writer (and co-star)  Simon Pegg had made the decision to have Sulu be a gay character and that it was a nod to George Takei  and was a sign of what he hoped were changing times. Takei, who came out as gay in 2005 and is married to a man, played the part in the original '60s  Star Trek series and movies.

"I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out [of] it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one's personal orientations," Cho told the newspaper. 

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Sulu's partners were never revealed on Star Trek before. However, in the 1994 movie Star Trek Generations , the first in the Star Trek: The Next Generation film franchise, his daughter Demora was shown as an adult.

Star Trek , known for boldly going where no one has gone before, has often showcased what were once considered daring plot lines with regard to gender identity and representation of the LGBT community.

Many minor characters are members of the LGBT community in Star Trek novels and comic books. In addition, androgynous species have been introduced on TV shows such as  Star Trek: The Next Generation .

Also, on the '90s series  Star Trek: Deep Space Nine , Terry Farrell 's Jadzia Dax played a joined Trill, a humanoid with a symbiont, a parasite-like being, implanted in her body that possesses the memories of past, deceased Trill hosts. In one episode, Jadzia and another joined female Trill whose symbionts once inhabited the bodies of a male and female couple make Star Trek history by exchanging the franchise's first romantic same-sex kiss.

Star Trek Beyond is set for release on July 22. The movie also stars returning actors  Chris Pine ,  Zachary Quinto ,  Zoe Saldana , Karl Urban  and  Anton Yelchin , who died last month at age 27 .  Idris Elba makes his debut as a villain named Krall.

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Emily Reynolds

Star Trek: Beyond cast rally behind gay Sulu

The news that popular Star Trek character Sulu will be gay in the latest instalment of the film has largely been met by praise – except from George Takei, who starred as Sulu in the original series.

Now the cast of Star Trek Beyond , which has just been released in the UK, have said they support the decision.

"It is high time for an LGBT character to be included in the Star Trek universe," Zachary Quinto, who plays Spock, told the BBC .

Takei, who is gay, earlier told the Hollywood Reporter that while he was "delighted" to see a gay character in the film it was "twisting of Gene Roddenbury's creation, to which he put in so much thought."

British star Simon Pegg reiterated that the current iteration of the character "doesn't change George's Sulu in any way", and claimed that Takei's vision of his own character would remain the same, despite the reboot.

This is the first time a Star Trek film or show has had an LGBT character, and it may not be the last – showrunner Bryan Fuller suggested the new TV series may have a similar character. "I think the progressive audience that loves Star Trek will be happy that we’re continuing that tradition," he told Collider .

This article was originally published by WIRED UK

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Hikaro Sulu portrayed as gay in new Star Trek film, says actor John Cho

The Star Trek star said the decision to define his character’s sexuality was done as a nod to openly gay actor George Takei, who originally played the role

Actor John Cho, who plays Hikaru Sulu in the new Star Trek films, revealed that the character is portrayed as gay in Justin Lin’s upcoming Star Trek Beyond .

In an interview with Australia’s Herald Sun , Cho revealed that Sulu is depicted in the film as a loving father in a same-sex relationship. In previous films Sulu never had a romantic partner of either sex, though he did have a daughter.

Cho said: “I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out of it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations.”

Cho said the decision by writers Lin and Simon Pegg to make Sulu gay was done in honor of George Takei, the openly gay actor who played the character originally. Takei starred in the television series, which featured the first interracial kiss on American network television in the 1968 episode Plato’s Stepchildren.

Since ending his run on the show, Takei has gone on to become a prominent LGBT activist. During the making of the series, he kept his sexuality hidden.

“If I wanted to work as an actor I had to keep it a secret,” Takei told News Corp last year. He came out publicly in 2005 and three years later married Brad Altman, his partner for nearly 20 years. The pair are the subject of the 2014 documentary To Be Takei.

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Simon Pegg Has a Canonical Explanation For Why Sulu Is Gay in the New Star Trek Universe

We’ve covered the news that the Sulu of Star Trek Beyond is gay, and the arguments on both sides. But here’s something a bit different—tucked into a second response addressing George Takei’s disappointment, co-writer Simon Pegg has shared his explanation for this change, given that the movie timeline only diverged from the original Trek universe upon Nero’s arrival in the 2009 movie.

Seeing as Nero went back in time and created the ‘Kelvin’ timeline in 2233, it’s hard to see how his arrival would have changed the sexual preference of young Hikaru Sulu, born on Earth in 2230. The implication is that since Sulu hadn’t been shown as gay in the original Star Trek TV series and movies, this felt like saying he had been closeted, which is where Takei’s major problem lay.

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Pegg has a different thought, one rooted in the alternate universe theory (paragraph breaks added for clarity):

With the Kelvin timeline, we are not entirely beholden to existing canon, this is an alternate reality and, as such is full of new and alternate possibilities. “BUT WAIT!” I hear you brilliant and beautiful super Trekkies cry, “Canon tells us, Hikaru Sulu was born before the Kelvin incident, so how could his fundamental humanity be altered? Well, the explanation comes down to something very Star Treky; theoretical, quantum physics and the less than simple fact that time is not linear . Sure, we experience time as a contiguous series of cascading events but perception and reality aren’t always the same thing. Spock’s incursion from the Prime Universe created a multidimensional reality shift. The rift in space/time created an entirely new reality in all directions, top to bottom, from the Big Bang to the end of everything. As such this reality was, is and always will be subtly different from the Prime Universe. I don’t believe for one second that Gene Roddenberry wouldn’t have loved the idea of an alternate reality (Mirror, Mirror anyone?). This means, and this is absolutely key , the Kelvin universe can evolve and change in ways that don’t necessarily have to follow the Prime Universe at any point in history, before or after the events of Star Trek ‘09 , it can mutate and subvert, it is a playground for the new and the progressive and I know in my heart, that Gene Roddenberry would be proud of us for keeping his ideals alive. Infinite diversity in infinite combinations, this was his dream, that is our dream, it should be everybody’s.

Pegg also expanded on his previous post, which focused on the progressive history of Star Trek and why they wanted an established character to be gay, rather than a new one. He explained, bluntly, that Sulu was chosen because of Takei:

The main thrust for those who aren’t keen on our LGBT Sulu, seems to come down to two things. Firstly, why Sulu? It’s a good point, I mean it could have been anybody: Kirk is a pansexual fun seeker; who knows why Bones got divorced? Nobody said Spock and Uhura were exclusive; Chekov is just permanently horny and let’s face it, there’s more to Scotty and Keenser than meets the eye. The fact is, we chose Sulu because of George, there was something sweet and poetic about it. Introducing a new gay character had its own set of problems, as I mentioned before, the sexuality of that character would have to be addressed immediately and pointedly and the new characters in Star Trek Beyond have enough on their plate, without stopping to give us the intimate details of their personal lives. We were concerned it might seem clumsy, tokenistic or worse, too little too late, raising and exasperated, “finally!” from those who’ve been waiting for representation for the last 50 years. So why persist when George Takei wasn’t keen? The thinking behind embracing an existing character was that it felt as though it retroactively put right something that had long been wrong. By the time, we mentioned it to GT, the idea had taken shape, it felt good, interesting and worthy of thought and conversation. We were disappointed that George didn’t see it that way but, truth be told, Sulu Prime seemed to be missing a very important point. With galaxies of respect to the great man, this is not his Sulu. John Cho does not play a young George Takei, nor does he play the same character George Takei played in the original series. He is a different Sulu.

Pegg concludes by saying that loving Star Trek means “we all want Gene’s idea of a tolerant inclusive, diplomatic and loving Universe to become a reality.” This was their contribution to forwarding that world.

Read Pegg’s whole post here .

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John Cho Says Sulu Is Gay in 'Star Trek Beyond'

By E. Alex Jung , Vulture

It’s a whole new world for Hikaru Sulu. John Cho, the actor who plays Sulu in the J.J. Abrams film reboots of Star Trek , says the helmsman will be revealed as gay in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond . “I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations,” Cho told Australia’s Herald Sun . The paper reports that the decision to give Sulu a husband and a daughter was a nod to George Takei, who played the original Hikaru Sulu.

John Cho’s Sulu will be the first gay canonical Star Trek character. Back in 2011, J.J. Abrams told New Now Next that he would consider putting a gay character into the franchise. “It’s one of those things I’ll bring up with the writers next time we meet,” he said. Even though Gene Roddenberry’s show made strides to be racially inclusive, Star Trek never had major queer characters. In fact, Paramount actually suppressed an episode where one writer tried to introduce a gay character in The Next Generation . On the TV show, Sulu was never paired with any romantic partners, but it was later shown that he had a daughter, Demora Sulu, who took his place in the 1994 movie Star Trek Generations . For Star Trek Beyond , Sulu would be arguably the most visible major gay character in a popular film franchise. (Whatever, Dumbledore.)

The move is a clear homage to Takei, who publicly came out in 2005 after then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in California. Takei had been in a relationship with his partner, Brad Altman, then for 18 years. At the time, Takei said ,“It’s not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It’s more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen.” In May of 2008, Takei and Altman became the first same-sex couple to apply for a marriage license in California, and they held a wedding ceremony later that year. They have been together for 29 years.

Read more: Steven Spielberg’s Child Actors, Ranked From Very Good to All-Time Great 21 Songs, Albums, and Artists to Listen to at the Beach, as Chosen by Musicians All the Ways Cersei Is Even More Evil in the Game of Thrones Books

(Photo: Paramount Pictures)

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Published Apr 20, 2019

The Unstoppable George Takei

In honor of Takei's 85th birthday, we're resharing one of our favorite interviews with the legend himself.

StarTrek.com

This interview originally ran on August 20, 2014. It's reposted today in honor of George Takei's 85th birthday.

George Takei is an actor, Star Trek legend, LGBT rights activist, Howard Stern announcer, author, voiceover artist, real estate mogul, Internet sensation, and so much more. Thanks in part to great TV roles and an acclaimed role in a Broadway-bound musical ( Allegiance , a musical about his experiences at a Japanese American internment camp during World War II), Takei has enjoyed a career and cultural renaissance over the past decade, making the timing perfect for the new documentary To Be Takei .

Producer-director Jennifer M. Kroot convinced the Trek actor and his husband, Brad Altman, to participate in the making of the film, which centers around Takei's life and career. Joining Takei on screen are his fellow surviving Star Trek co-stars: Leonard Nimoy, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, and the captain himself, William Shatner. To Be Takei , will open in theaters on August 22, 2014 and, that same day, be available on all VOD platforms, including iTunes and Amazon Instant Video .

When we met with Takei in New York City he was in good spirits, impeccably dressed, and as talkative as ever as we asked him about the documentary, his other current projects, and the upcoming 50th anniversary of Star Trek .

StarTrek.com: How and when were you approached to do To Be Takei , and what was your initial reaction to the idea?

George Takei: I think it was 2010, and [Brad and I] didn’t know Jennifer at all. We’d never heard of her. So we immediately did some homework on her past works. So many actors get vanity projects done about them, which make them look more glamorous, more intelligent and more charming, and we didn’t want that. We saw the idea of a documentary as being a vehicle to help us with our advocacy for LGBT equality, and also to demonstrate the normalcy of our relationship, as well as the craziness of my career.

We wanted to trust the documentarian, so we had many, many meetings and meals together with Jennifer, to get a feel for her, for why she wanted to do a documentary on us. And we found that we shared common values and common aspirations. She’s a strong supporter of LGBT equality. So we said, “We don’t want a vanity project. We will not censor you. We will not ask for final cut approval. You have carte blanche . We trust you, and please honor that trust.”

The reality is that you’ve been a public figure and in the public eye for decades, but what was it like to have cameras on you pretty much 24-7 — even in your car — for such an extended period of time?

GT: [It took] three years. I’m used to cameras, even in our private moments. And I walked into this knowing that’s what it was going to take.

For Brad, it was not so easy. He liked to know when filming was beginning, and when it was finished. There’s a bit they kept in the movie, where we went out for a walk from our house. Brad didn’t want our front door shown because there are fans who drive around looking for people’s houses. He went hysterical, [saying] “No! Turn off the cameras!” I said, “It’s all right, it’s all right.” So, Brad was very uncomfortable with it. In retrospect, I kind of wish we could have asked her to excise certain parts.

How pleased were you that Leonard Nimoy, Nichelle Nichols and Walter Koenig participated. And, how shocked were you that your frequent sparring partner, William Shatner, participated too?

GT: We wanted everybody. The Star Trek family is a family, even if we squabble. I was very happy to have Leonard, Nichelle and Walter. Bill [Shatner], he demurred [at first]. Then Bill found something that he needed from me. He was doing that one-man show that he traveled the country with, and he wanted to use a clip of me from the [Comedy Central] roast. So I told Jennifer, “We have some bargaining chips.”

She’d approached him [initially] and was turned down. She came back to us and said, “Is there any way you can persuade him?” We said, “No, no, there isn’t.” Then when he came to me to sign a release for that roast footage, I said to Jennifer, “You want to dicker with him?” So we used that release as the commodity. [Bill] said, “No more than 10 minutes.” Then how he used that 10 minutes was silly, [saying] “I don’t know the man.”

Well, why did he make such a big fuss about not being invited to our wedding if he really doesn’t know me? It’s crazy, his carryings-on. Then we found out two months later why he made that big fuss. His talk show, Raw Nerve , was coming out and he wanted publicity. Just announcing that you have a new show won’t get you that kind of publicity, unless you have a little whoo-ha .

What’s the latest on your musical, Allegiance ? It had such a great run at the Old Globe Theatre in San Diego. Will the production eventually reach Broadway?

GT: We have been waiting for a year and a half now for a theater vacancy. We at first thought it was this unusual circumstance of every theater in New York City being booked up. So we got in line with other producers and patiently waited. But then, what we’re discovering is that these old, grizzled veteran producers, who have brought a lot of box office successes to the Shuberts or the Nederlanders, can sail in from left field and say, “Hey, old buddy, I’ve got another one here… When Bridges of Madison County closes, we’d like to take over.” It’s the Broadway Old Boys’ club and we think that’s awfully unfair, but that’s the way it is.

So you’re still on that line, waiting your turn?

GT: We are, but we also have a strategy. We are going to try to partner with one of the grizzled, old-time producers. So we hope to be on Broadway later this year or early next year. But we will be on Broadway.

What’s your relationship with Sulu and Star Trek these days? Is he still a part of your daily life? Is Star Trek still a part of your day-to-day existence?

GT: Sulu is a part of my life and Star Trek is a part of my life, but they’re a bit removed just because of the passage of time. Did you see the movie Boyhood ? Time does things. And, as I say in the documentary, “I’m a different guy.” I look different. I sound different. I think differently. But I’m proud of Sulu and I’m proud of my association with Star Trek . It’s just two years until we celebrate the 50th anniversary of Star Trek , the golden anniversary. To be associated with that kind of extraordinary phenomenon, with such an unusual, landmark production is something to be very proud of.

During the window between Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness Zachary Quinto revealed that he was gay. How proud were you, and how did you feel about him being able to do so so early in his own relationship to Star Trek ?

GT: I applaud him for doing so, and I also envy him that society has changed enough that an actor can come out and still be embraced and still work. At the height of my career as Sulu, I would probably never have returned in the [ Star Trek ] feature films if I had done that. Society was different then. They weren’t ready for it. Hollywood wasn’t ready for it. Now, it’s a measure of our society that people like Zachary or Neil Patrick Harris can be who they are, fully, and still have not only a viable career, but ascendant, growing careers. Zachary was brilliant in Angels in America and also in The Glass Menagerie .  His performance in The Glass Menagerie — that was the best Tom Wingfield that I’ve ever seen. And Zachary is going to be doing a lot more important work in the years to come.

You mentioned the upcoming 50th anniversary of Star Trek . You, in the past, have marveled about the franchise’s 25th anniversary, the 30th, the 35th, etc. But, really, 50 is a magic number, wouldn’t you agree?

GT: It’s remarkable. What other show can make that kind of claim? It’s especially remarkable because we were practically 'cellar dwellers' as a TV show. First of all, for it to come back as a feature film a decade after cancellation was unheard of. Then, for it to become a series of feature films, followed by a series of spin-off shows… it’s unprecedented. It’s a singular phenomenon, Star Trek . To be a part of that, I think, is something we all hold with pride.

What else are you working on these days?

GT: I still do a lot of voiceovers, for commercials and for animated shows. The days are blurring, but while we’ve been doing publicity for To Be Takei , I’ve also carved out time to do some voiceover work for a new Nickelodeon animated series. I voice a sea creature, and my name is Major Bummer [laughs] . Major Bummer is a big fish — a big fish that lords it over the other little fish, the mollies.

Some shows are done with the cast together, but this is me solo in a booth, recording my dialogue.  So, right now, my time is being spent promoting To Be Takei , doing the voiceovers, and trying to make sure that we get Allegiance to Broadway in the very near future. Hopefully the next time we talk it will be about Allegiance opening on Broadway!

This interview has been edited and condensed.

Be sure to follow Takei at his official site , on Facebook and on Twitter at @GeorgeTakei .

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‘Star Trek: Beyond’ Will Reveal Sulu Is Gay

Film’s star John Cho says Sulu will become the franchise’s first LGBT character as a nod to George Takei

“Star Trek: Beyond” will confirm that longtime character Sulu has a same-sex partner, according to John Cho , the actor who plays him in the upcoming film.

In an interview with Herald Australia, Cho said that director Justin Lin and writer Simon Pegg  made Sulu the franchise’s first LGBT character as an homage to George Takei , the first actor to play him. Takei has become well known in recent years for his Facebook page and his LGBT activism.

Past installments in the “Star Trek” canon have revealed little about Sulu’s personal life. The 1994 film “Star Trek Generations” introduced his daughter Demora, who followed in his footsteps and took over as helmsman of the Enterprise. However it was never revealed whether or not Sulu had a significant other.

Cho says that in “Beyond,” Sulu will be shown as both a loving husband and father, and in typical “Trek” fashion, it won’t be treated as a big deal.

“I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations,” he said.

“Star Trek: Beyond” will premiere during San Diego Comic-Con on July 20 at the Embarcadero Marina Park. The first ever outdoor IMAX screening will feature a cast and crew tribute to co-star Anton Yelchin , who was tragically killed in an accident last month. The film will release in theaters nationwide on July 22.

George Takei Doesn’t Think the Gay Sulu Scene Was Gay Enough

Was 'Star Trek Beyond' a little too pleased with itself?

This summer, Star Trek Beyond finally introduced a gay character into its supposedly progressive universe. The franchise’s Hikaru Sulu was rewritten to have a husband in the movie. But the original Mr. Sulu — George Takei himself — isn’t impressed.

After voicing his concerns early on over retcon and insensitivity to his original portrayal of Sulu, Takei, who is openly gay and openly delightful, is now saying that Beyond didn’t go “far enough” by showing Sulu’s husband.

“Just hugging the baby and arm around the guy … and it’s over.” Takei said in an interview with Digital Spy .

Back in July, Takei voiced concern that by rendering John Cho’s Sulu as gay, an unnecessary revision of the original Star Trek was being coupled with insensitive tokenism. At that time, Takei suggested the film introduce a new character who was gay. Simon Pegg, co-writer of Beyond ’s screenplay countered, claiming that a new character would have been even worse on the “tokenism” front. The gay Sulu debate was a draw, but Takei’s new comments have called into question something more than just topics of tokenism or retcon: Was Star Trek a little too pleased with itself by slipping in Sulu’s gay husband?

Ben runs for his life with he and Sulu's daughter at Starbase Yorktown

Notably, Sulu’s husband was played by the other co-writer of the film, Doug Jung. The character also has a name: Ben, though it’s somewhat telling that in writing about this particular plot point, nobody mentions this person, as a person . Ben isn’t given any lines, and a casual viewer can easily miss him. That hat means that, on the one hand, Beyond didn’t make a big deal out of Sulu’s husband because, in the 23rd century, being gay would not be a big deal. On the other hand, it also means that Trek took the path of least resistance. Could we have lingered with Sulu and Ben for a moment longer? Kirk doesn’t even speak to them in the final scene in the movie where everyone is drinking and having a good time.

While some might say that something is better than nothing, that doesn’t render Takei’s point invalid.

Even if you’re loathe to concede that Beyond engaged in troublesome tokenism, it’s hard to ignore Takei’s most telling point, that was “not even a kiss.”

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As an Homage to George Takei, John Cho’s Sulu Is Gay in Star Trek Beyond

It’s a whole new world for Hikaru Sulu. John Cho, the actor who plays Sulu in the J.J. Abrams film reboots of Star Trek , says the helmsman will be revealed as gay in the upcoming Star Trek Beyond . “I liked the approach, which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations,”  Cho told Australia’s  Herald Sun . The paper reports that the decision to give Sulu a husband and a daughter was a nod to George Takei, who played the original Hikaru Sulu.

John Cho’s Sulu will be the first gay canonical Star Trek character. Back in 2011, J.J. Abrams told New Now Next that he would consider putting a gay character into the franchise. “It’s one of those things I’ll bring up with the writers next time we meet,” he said. Even though Gene Roddenberry’s show made strides to be racially inclusive, Star Trek never had major queer characters. In fact, Paramount actually suppressed an episode where one writer tried to introduce a gay character in The Next Generation . On the TV show, Sulu was never paired with any romantic partners, but it was later shown that he had a daughter, Demora Sulu, who took his place in the 1994 movie Star Trek Generations . For Star Trek Beyond , Sulu would be arguably the most visible major gay character in a popular film franchise. (Whatever, Dumbledore.)

The move is a clear homage to Takei, who publicly came out in 2005 after then Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a bill that would have legalized same-sex marriage in California. Takei had been in a relationship with his partner, Brad Altman, then for 18 years. At the time, Takei said , “It’s not really coming out, which suggests opening a door and stepping through. It’s more like a long, long walk through what began as a narrow corridor that starts to widen.” In May of 2008, Takei and Altman became the first same-sex couple to apply for a marriage license in California, and they held a wedding ceremony later that year. They have been together for 29 years.

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Star Trek Beyond: George Takei says gay Sulu is really unfortunate

Oh my. George Takei, the actor and LGBT activist who originated the role of Mr. Sulu on Star Trek , has expressed disappointment over the news that a version of the character is revealed to be gay in the upcoming film Star Trek Beyond .

John Cho, who plays Sulu in the rebooted Star Trek movies, had said in an interview with the Herald Sun of Australia that the decision to portray his character as a gay man was intended as an homage to Takei, who is openly gay.

But Takei told the Hollywood Reporter that he opposes the decision to change Sulu's sexuality because it contradicts Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's original vision. "I'm delighted that there's a gay character," Takei said. "Unfortunately, it's a twisting of Gene's creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it's really unfortunate."

According to Takei, he would have preferred that Cho and the filmmakers — including director Justin Lin and actor/co-writer Simon Pegg — created an all-new gay character. Takei also said he expressed his opinion several times in recent months, to no avail.

"I told [Cho], 'Be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted,'" Takei said.

EW has reached out to representatives for Cho, Takei, and Paramount Pictures for comment and will update this post accordingly.

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‘Star Trek Beyond’: George Takei Objects To Gay Sulu, But Uhura Kiss Proves 'Star Trek' Diversity Has Always Been Complicated

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On Thursday, the creators of Star Trek Beyond revealed Starfleet officer Hikaru Sulu (John Cho) would be in a same-sex relationship and have a daughter in the film. The character decision was apparently made in tribute to George Takei, the first actor to portray Sulu in the original Star Trek and a prominent LGBT rights activist.

But it soon came out that Takei objects to the tribute. "I’m delighted that there’s a gay character," he told The Hollywood Reporter . "Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate."

Instead Takei would have preferred a new gay character. “Be imaginative and create a character who has a history of being gay, rather than Sulu, who had been straight all this time, suddenly being revealed as being closeted,” Takei told Entertainment Weekly .

Simon Pegg, who co-wrote the Star Trek Beyond script (with Doug Jung) and will appear as Montgomery “Scotty” Scott in the movie, responded at length, saying he “must respectfully disagree with” Takei.

Here’s a portion of his response, released to The Guardian :

“He’s right, it is unfortunate, it’s unfortunate that the screen version of the most inclusive, tolerant universe in science fiction hasn’t featured an LGBT character until now. We could have introduced a new gay character, but he or she would have been primarily defined by their sexuality, seen as the ‘gay character’, rather than simply for who they are, and isn’t that tokenism?

" J ustin Lin, Doug Jung and I loved the idea of it being someone we already knew because the audience have a pre-existing opinion of that character as a human being, unaffected by any prejudice. Their sexual orientation is just one of many personal aspects, not the defining characteristic. Also, the audience would infer that there has been an LGBT presence in the Trek Universe from the beginning (at least in the Kelvin timeline), that a gay hero isn’t something new or strange. It’s also important to note that at no point do we suggest that our Sulu was ever closeted, why would he need to be? It’s just hasn’t come up before.”

The ongoing debate speaks to the nuance and complexity of how diversity discussions unfold in our popular culture. That Takei objected to the portrayal, and the production still insisted that the move was a tribute to him, is as clear an example as we’re likely to see of a diversity initiative flattening individual nuance under a presumed progressive consensus. It’s hard not to see the insinuation that Takei, as a gay man, could not have been portraying a straight man all those years, as the decision retroactively shoves Sulu in the closet. The Hollywood Reporter offers a good timeline of how the production ignored Takei’s objections before leaning on his LGBT activist reputation in trumpeting the “ not a big deal ” decision to make Sulu gay.

Contrasting Takei’s specific objections, the response on social media and among the film press has been overwhelmingly positive. Takei and Sulu are not the same person, so while Takei may object to the way in which the character realignment goes against Roddenberry’s original vision, the creation of a new gay role model in mainstream cinema could outweigh those objections, if increasing LGBT acceptance is the central ethical objective of the decision.

At this point it would be useful to look back at another landmark in Star Trek ’s progressive political history: television’s first interracial kiss between James T. Kirk ( William Shatner ) and Nyota Uhura ( Nichelle Nichols ). The moment has been repeatedly cited by outlets describing Star Trek Beyond ’s Sulu reveal. Pegg even mentioned it in his response, writing “ Trek rightly gets a lot of love for featuring the first interracial kiss on US television.”

It’s always that one sentence, a variation on “ Star Trek broke new ground in depicting the first interracial kiss broadcast on US television.” But that obscures the complications and compromises of the moment itself — both how it played out for audiences watching the Star Trek episode “Plato’s Stepchildren” and how it was originally shot.

Here is that kiss:

One aspect should be immediately obvious: it is far from consensual. In “Plato’s Stepchildren” the Enterprise crew beams down to a planet in response to a distress call. The distress call is a trap laid by the Greek-garbed Platonians who mainly want to use their telekinetic powers to puppet the crew for their own sadistic pleasure. First nurse Christine Chapel and Spock are forced to kiss, fighting it all the way.

Then Uhura and Kirk are forced to do the same. “I’m so frightened, Captain. I’m so very frightened,” Uhura says.

“That’s the way they want you to feel. It makes them think that they’re alive,” Kirk responds, urging her to lean into the moment and deny the Platonians the pleasure of tormenting them.

“I’m thinking of all the times on the Enterprise when I was scared to death and I would see you so busy at your commands. And I would hear your voice from all parts of the ship and my fears would fade. And now they are making me tremble. But I’m not afraid. I am not afraid,” Uhura says.

Then they kiss, Kirk looking up and straight into the eyes of Philana — the most sympathetic of the alien captors — the entire time.

It’s not exactly a romantic moment or a romantic kiss; it is deeply uncomfortable. Since NBC, the station that broadcasted Star Trek , had objected earlier that same year to a white woman touching a black man’s arm , it’s easy to see why the writers would have avoided any hint of romance.

Still, even this forced and uncomfortable moment very nearly didn’t make it to air. As Nichols describes, the episode’s director, David Alexander , seemed utterly unaware of what he was about to film. She recalls him cutting mid-kiss to discuss it with Shatner, while pointedly ignoring her.

“The director — who I knew and had a great deal of respect for, very fine director — said, ‘Bill!’ And he walks over, like I’m not sitting there with Bill Shatner, Captain Kirk, like I’m not there, and he starts talking to him like, ‘You, uh, kissed her.’ And Bill says, ‘Yes, yes I kissed her. Isn’t that what the scene is about.’ And he starts talking out of the side of his mouth like I’m not there.”

Shatner, burnishing both his progressive credit and ladies’ man reputation, argued for the scene with the director, saying, “She won’t let me kiss her offstage!”

They wound up attempting the kiss six times, with the director looking for more discreet ways to handle the moment and pushing the actors to act more and more horrified at what’s about to happen to them.

Under the watchful eyes of NBC “suits” they then tried the scene several times without a kiss, each take rendered unusable by Nichols and Shatner intentionally overacting. In her memoir, Beyond Uhura: Star Trek and Other Memories , Nichols describes the cast and crew watching the footage for the first time, writing, “When the non-kissing scene came on, everyone in the room cracked up. The last shot, which looked okay on the set, actually had Bill wildly crossing his eyes. It was so corny and just plain bad it was unusable.”

Even filtered through layers of compromise and prejudice, “Plato’s Stepchildren” didn’t air on several Southern affiliates, resulting in the series’ lowest rating ever. While Star Trek was already approaching cancellation, “Plato’s Stepchildren” certainly didn’t help.

Many of the critiques of Sulu’s gay retcon, Takei’s included, have a great deal of merit. An Annenberg report across TV and movies have found a pervasive and shameful lack of diversity in terms of gender, sexual orientation and race. Only about 18 percent of casts have as many women as men, resulting in only 33 percent of speaking roles going to women. Racial diversity continues to be a problem as well, with 18 percent of movies and 23 percent of narrative cable shows without even a single black character (it’s even worse for Asian characters at 50 percent and 51 percent respectively). Of 11,194 speaking characters surveyed, only 231 were LGBT, less than half of their demographic representation in American society.

The extent of the inequality suggests Pegg’s concern with “tokenism” will never be fixed by the trend of altering existing beloved characters alone. The diversity problem is so vast that reimagining Iron Man and Kick-Ass as black girls, Thor as a woman and Sulu as a homosexual can’t be the extent of the mainstream diversity arsenal. Star Trek needs new gay characters, too.

The Annenberg study makes it clear that altering the underlying makeup of the creative class needs to be part of the solution. While on-screen diversity is lacking, the problem is even more acute behind-the-scenes, where women make up only one-tenth of screenwriters and nearly 90 percent of directors are white.

As socialist commentator Freddie deBoer argues, making Sulu gay is partially just good marketing, covering up institutional diversity problems in the structure of Hollywood studios with populist pandering — offering minority groups cosmetic diversity as the corrupt foundation goes unchanged and unchallenged.

But even as we consider better pathways and more promising solutions, it’s hard to deny the simple, galvanizing power of a newly gay character, however compromised. Everything about the first kiss between a black woman and a white man on US television was uncomfortable and far from ideal, yet it still serves us today as a mile marker on a long road, something worth remembering as we discuss this latest imperfect move. Could it really be the case that the world is worse for this latest imperfect diversifying?

YEAH SULU IS ASIAN!!! A GAY POC IN ONE OF THE BIGGEST FRANCHISES EVER IM ACTUALLY CRYING — moved! @sheithlings (@droidlings) July 7, 2016

? salemnevada: Ahhh!!! I’m so happy that Sulu is gay for the new movie !!! I immediately imagined sulu... https://t.co/oFfRdGWfgM — Sʜɪɹoʞnᴍᴀ (@HikichiRyouk) July 8, 2016

While the kiss between Uhura and Kirk has become little more than one-sentence trivia in an ongoing struggle for racial equality, its distant twinkling is a good reminder of time’s flattening influence. Even compromised moments of progress can resonate decades later.

Sulu’s homosexuality is less radical in this era than Uhura’s kiss was in 1968 — “About time!” has been one of the more common reactions — but first steps are often uncertain and later than we’d like them to be. Hopefully, as with 1968’s sadly compromised kiss, taking this step will prove better than the alternative: leaving future generations with only our mainstream media’s deafening silence in the face of prejudice.

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Sulu is gay in the next ‘Star Trek’ movie. George Takei isn’t happy about that.

In less than two weeks, “Star Trek Beyond” will hit theaters with a bombshell: the long-running sci-fi franchise’s first openly gay character. As it happens, it’s someone that longtime fans already know and love: Helmsman Hikaru Sulu, the character played by George Takei in the original 1960’s television series and, later, in seven “Star Trek” movies.

Even more surprising, there is one person who is decidedly unhappy about this development: Takei himself.

In  an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Takei, who is openly gay, said: “Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of [‘Star Trek’ creator Gene Roddenberry’s] creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate.”

According to Takei, Roddenberry was “a strong supporter of LGBT equality.” But the actor was not out of the closet when the series was made. Takei, who came out publicly in a 2005 interview with Frontiers magazine, has since become a major LGBTQ icon and activist, serving as a spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign and attracting 9 million followers to his humane and often hilarious Facebook feed. In 2008, Takei and his husband, Brad Altman, were among the first same-sex couples to apply for a marriage license in California.

Although Takei describes himself as “delighted” that there’s a gay character in the new movie, he says he just doesn’t think it should be Sulu, a character whom he insists Roddenberry fleshed out fully — and who was always straight.

To some viewers of “Star Trek,” there’s plenty of wiggle room. To be sure, Sulu was never a romantic lead. Although he was revealed to have a daughter (played by Jacqueline Kim) in the 1994 film “Star Trek: Generations,” that’s far from definitive. And there are scenes from the original series that lend themselves to speculation. In the 1967 episode “Mirror, Mirror,” some of the crew of the Enterprise encounter their evil twins in a parallel universe. There, Sulu, who is captain of the ship, makes an aggressive pass at Uhuru. In the logic of that episode, predatory heterosexuality would be the opposite of what the real Sulu would have done.

According to Takei, he lobbied “Star Trek Beyond” director Justin Lin not to make Sulu gay in the film, which was co-written by Doug Yung and Simon Pegg, who also plays Scotty. But the filmmakers went ahead with the twist, which is revealed in a scene that shows Sulu with a husband and daughter.

Following Takei’s criticism, the filmmakers and stars of “Star Trek Beyond” rushed to defend the decision. Pegg released a statement saying that he loved Takei, but on this matter “must respectfully disagree with him.” He added that the filmmakers “loved the idea [of a gay ‘Star Trek’ character] being someone we already knew because the audience have a preexisting opinion of that character as a human being, unaffected by any prejudice.”

John Cho, who plays Sulu in the new film, said in an interview that he liked the approach that was taken, “which was not to make a big thing out it, which is where I hope we are going as a species, to not politicize one’s personal orientations.”

Zachary Quinto, the openly gay actor who plays Spock, told an interviewer that he was “disappointed by the fact that George was disappointed.”

“I get it that he has had his own personal journey and has his own personal relationship with this character,” Quinto said. “But . . . as we established in the first ‘Star Trek’ film in 2009, we’ve created an alternate universe. My hope is that eventually George can be strengthened by the enormously positive response from especially young people, who are heartened by and inspired by this really tasteful and beautiful portrayal of something that I think is gaining acceptance and inclusion in our societies across the world, and should be.”

Did Gene Roddenberry Try to Have a Gay Character on the Original Star Trek?

• Rod Roddenberry believes his father would support LGBTQ+ characters on Star Trek now.
• Gene Roddenberry's views on LGBTQ+ characters evolved over the years for the better.
• Roddenberry, pre-Stonewall, was not considering LGBTQ+ characters on Star Trek in the 1960s.

TV LEGEND : Gene Roddenberry tried to have an LGBTQ+ character on the original Star Trek series.

A few years back, there was a bit of a controversy when George Takei, who played Lt. Sulu on the original Star Trek TV series from 1966-1969, criticized the decision of the Star Trek film reboot to have the Sulu in the film series (which was set in an alternate timeline where Captain James T. Kirk and his crew took over the Enterprise earlier than in the original timeline) be gay. Takei argued, "I’m delighted that there’s a gay character. Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought . I think it’s really unfortunate." Takei felt that since Sulu was intended to be straight by Roddenberry on the original Star Trek series, that it would be wrong to have him be gay in the new timeline. Takei urged the filmmakers to create a new character instead.

Rod Roddenberry, Gene Roddenberry's son (Roddenberry died in 1991), noted at the time , in reference to his father, "I think he would be 100 percent in favor of a gay character in Star Trek. There’s so much going on in the world today. I think he would love any sort of social issue being brought into Star Trek. ”

Roddenberry is almost certainly correct that his father would have been in favor of there being a gay character on Star Trek now, but I think there has been some confusion as to Roddenberry's thoughts on the topic when it came to the original series. Essentially, Roddenberry has been positioned by some fans as someone who wanted to do an episode with LGBTQ+ characters in the 1960s, but just wasn't allowed to do so. Was that the case?

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What has George Takei said about asking Gene Roddenberry for an LGBTQ+ character on Star Trek?

George Takei, in a PBS interview , told the story of a time in 1968 when he tried to pitch Roddenberry on doing an LGBTQ+ character on Star Trek:

“I did very privately bring up the issue of gays and lesbians. And he was certainly, as a sophisticated man, mindful of that, but he said – in one episode we had a biracial kiss, Captain Kirk and Uhura had a kiss. That show was literally blacked out in the south, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia didn't air that; our ratings plummeted. It was the lowest rated episode that we had. And he said, “I'm treading a fine tight wire here. I'm dealing with issues of the time. I'm dealing with the civil rights movement, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and I need to be able to make that statement by staying on the air.” He said, “If I dealt with that issue I wouldn't be able to deal with any issue because I would be canceled.”

Takei continued, "And I understood that because I was still closeted at that time. I talked to him as a liberal rather than as a gay man and I understood his position on that. So that's the way Star Trek envisioned our future in the 23rd century, but I think we're getting closer to that utopian society that Gene Roddenberry visualized, much more rapidly than even the technology.”

The interesting thing about the network, at the time, is that it specifically ASKED its producers to find roles for Black actors, sending out a memo ( courtesy of FactTrek ) stating, "We urge producers to cast Negroes, subject to their availability and competence as performers, as people who are an integral segment of the population, as well as in those roles where the fact of their minority status is of significance. An earnest attempt has been made to see that their presence contributes to an honest and natural reflection of places, situations and events, and we desire to intensify and extend this effort."

In other words, casting a regular Black character or a regular Asian character was, while certainly admirable by Roddenberry, not something that the network even had a problem with at that point in time. Having an LGBTQ+ regular character, though, wasn't even in the realm of possibility in 1968 for a network TV series. In other words, Roddenberry might very well have been mindful of Takei's concern at the time, but there was no way he was ever seriously considering having an LGBTQ+ character on the series.

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What did Gene Roddenberry say about his interest in having LGBTQ+ characters in Star Trek?

In a great 1991 interview with David Alexander , Roddenberry discussed how his views had changed over the years, and he specifically offered up that his views on LGBTQ+ people had evolved for the better:

I n the early 1960s, I was much more a macho-type person. I was still accepting things from my childhood as necessary and part of reality how men related to women, et cetera. My assistant, Susan Sackett, used to say to me, "You really put down women a lot for someone who is supposed to be thoughtful and liberal." I began listening to her and agreeing that she was right in her perceptions. My attitude toward homosexuality has changed. I came to the conclusion that I was wrong. I was never someone who hunted down "fags" as we used to call them on the street. I would, sometimes, say something anti-homosexual off the top of my head because it was thought, in those days, to be funny. I never really deeply believed those comments, but I gave the impression of being thoughtless in these areas. I have, over many years, changed my attitude about gay men and women.

Again, by the launch of Star Trek: The Next Generation , Roddenberry was a different person, and society was thankfully different (David Gerrold has noted a number of times that Roddenberry specifically said circa 1986 that there WOULD be gay crew members on the Enterprise in The Next Generation ), and it is VERY likely that, had Roddenberry lived, he would have made sure that there was an LGBTQ+ character on The Next Generation . Sadly, he died before that could ever happen.

However, there was no way that he was ever even considering having an LGBTQ+ character on Star Trek in the late 1960s, pre-Stonewall. Roddenberry was certainly ahead of his time in many ways, but this after the fact portrayal of him as a guy titling at windmills in the pursuit of progressive ideals doesn't fit the reality of the late 1960s. He certainly did what he could, and he should be praised for doing so, but he wasn't trying to have LGBTQ+ characters on his network science fiction TV series in 1968.

The legend is...

STATUS : False enough for a false (there's some gray area when it comes to "I'd like to do that, but I can't")

Be sure to check out my archive of TV Legends Revealed for more urban legends about the world of TV. Click here for more legends specifically about Star Trek.

Feel free (heck, I implore you!) to write in with your suggestions for future installments! My e-mail address is [email protected]

George Takei

Japanese American actor George Takei played Lieutenant Sulu in the original 'Star Trek' television series and movies and is a popular social-media presence.

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Early Years

Stage and screen, public service and private revelations, quick facts:, who is george takei.

George Takei overcame the racial barriers of his time to launch a successful acting career. He starred as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu during the three-year television run of Star Trek , and later reprised the role for six movies. Prominently involved with gay rights and Japanese American groups, Takei has become a highly popular social-media presence.

George Hosato Takei was born on April 20, 1937, in Los Angeles, California. At the age of 5, he and his family were uprooted from their home and forced to live at Japanese internment camps in Arkansas and northern California. They returned to Los Angeles after World War II, and Takei enrolled at the University of California at Berkeley to study architecture.

While in college, Takei responded to a newspaper ad looking for Asian voiceover actors for the English version of the Japanese monster movie Rodan (1956). That led to more voiceover work, as well as small parts in television programs such as Perry Mason and the film Ice Palace (1960). Deciding to focus on acting full time, Takei transferred to the University of California Los Angeles, where he earned both a bachelor's and master's degree in theater.

In 1966, Takei became one of the few Asian Americans to be featured prominently on TV when he starred as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu on the science-fiction series Star Trek. He returned after taking time off during the second season to film The Green Berets (1968), but his role as Sulu was temporarily shelved when Star Trek was canceled in 1969.

Takei continued to make regular TV appearances in the 1970s, on such programs as The Six Million Dollar Man and Hawaii Five-O , while providing the voice of Sulu for the Star Trek animated series. Momentum gathered for the making of the movie, and Takei reunited with the rest of his old castmates for Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979) and five sequels over the next dozen years.

The 1990s brought a steady stream of voiceover gigs, with Takei's signature baritone surfacing in the Disney animated feature Mulan (1998) and episodes of The Simpsons . The veteran actor also became a semi-regular guest on the Howard Stern Show , and in 2006, he was named Stern's official announcer following the shock-jock's move to Sirius XM Radio.

Takei was involved in a project close to his heart when he took on a starring role in Allegiance , a production about the World War II internment of Japanese Americans. The play premiered at San Diego's Old Globe Theater in September 2012.

Takei has remained a busy man away from show business. After narrowly losing his bid for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council in 1973, he joined the board of directors for the Southern California Transit District from 1973 to 1984.

Takei served on the board of the Japan-United States Friendship Commission for President Bill Clinton and was conferred with the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Rosette by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan in 2004. He is also chairman emeritus of the Japanese American National Museum's board of trustees and serves as chair of the council of governors of East West Players, a renowned Asian-American theater organization.

In 2005, Takei publicly announced his homosexuality to Frontiers magazine. He married his longtime partner, Brad Altman, in September 2008.

In recent years, Takei has earned a following from a new generation of fans with his funny, incisive posts on Facebook. His expansive social-media presence, along with the 2013 release of Star Trek Into Darkness , has helped keep this accomplished actor and activist in the public eye.

FULL NAME: George Takei, born Hosato Takei BORN: April 20, 1937 BIRTHPLACE:Los Angeles, California

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• Nathan Lane, ‘Fellow Travelers’ Among Honorees At Critics Choice First Annual ‘Celebration Of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television’ Awards (Watch Video)

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Starting this particular June weekend of Pride events off with a bang was Friday night’s first annual Critics Choice Association ‘s Celebration Of LGBTQ+ Cinema & Television , an awards gala that packed the main ballroom of L.A.’s Fairmont Century Plaza Hotel with each table’s settings sporting a rainbow pride flag among other festival decorations. The lively event brought out a host of honorees and starry presenters delivering lots of stirring and heartfelt remarks. Comedian and Actress Sherry Cola hosted the expertly paced presentation.

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Ru Paul’s Drag Race took the Trailblazer Award, while We’re Here won the Reality TV Award. Paramount Global and President and CEO of CBS George Cheeks was on hand to deliver the Industry Leadership Award to Funny Or Die’s Henry R. Munoz III. Greg Berlanti presented The Producer Award went to Showtime and Paramount + Limited Series, Fellow Travelers .

The show will begin streaming on June 21st on HereTV, the first and largest LGBTQ+ TV and Streaming service in the USA. The event is the latest in the Critics Choice Association’s series of Celebrations that have included Celebration of Black Cinema & Television, Celebration of Latino Cinema & Televison, and Celebration of Asian Pacific Cinema & Television.

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Michaela Jaé Rodriguez, Sherry Cola and More Urge for Improved LGBTQ Representation in Hollywood: We’re ‘Multidimensional, and We Have Something to Say’

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“Loot” and “Pose” star Michaela Jaé Rodriguez says while growing up, the Logo dramedy series “Noah’s Arc,” which followed the lives and relationships of four gay men in Los Angeles, was one of the first shows she saw that made her feel represented.

“There were so many people of color on that show,” Rodriguez told Variety . “They did highlight a lot of trans women. It wasn’t as prominent, but the girls were there. I saw a whole encompassing story around all of the LGBTQIA+ community in that show and it resonated with me, it still resonates with me today.”

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Other honorees from the night included “Abbott Elementary” star Chris Perfetti for the Breakthrough Performance Award for television series, “Star Trek” star George Takei for the Social Justice Award, “Palm Royale” showrunner Abe Sylvia for the Showrunner Award, “Baby Reindeer” star Nava Mau for the Breakthrough Performance Award for a limited series and many more.

Carl Clemons-Hopkins, who was honored with the Supporting Performance Television Award for their work on “Hacks,” told Variety that accurate representation stems from getting more representation behind the scenes: “The more that you can show the variety of the world within the variety of the industry, the more we can be a better reflection of what’s going on.”

Cola explained that having more representation like her character Alice in “Good Trouble” can help inspire queer youth: “The industry needs to just take more chances. Take a risk on us. We will absolutely blow you away. We will prove you wrong. We’re so layered and multidimensional, and we have something to say. And as a matter of fact, people will listen.”

The show streams June 21 on HereTV.

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