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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial
ARTICLE VIEW:
George Takei is 88 years old and will never stop fighting for equality
By Lisa Respers France and Audie Cornish, CNN
Updated:
6:40 PM EDT, Thu July 3, 2025
Source: CNN
George Takei has a very personal view about current US immigration
enforcement efforts.
The “Star Trek” star to promote his new graphic memoir, “It
Rhymes With Takei.” He talked about being held as a five-year-old
child with his family in an internment camp for Japanese Americans by
the US government during World War II.
Takai is the author of several books and has shared his story before,
but he sees an urgency in making sure that people know their history,
so the horrors his and other families endured won’t be repeated.
“Our democracy reflects the people and if the people are cowed and
silent it fails,” he told Cornish.
The actor turned activist has his own rich history of advocacy on
multiple fronts, ranging from immigration to LGBTQ+ rights. The man who
at one point was closeted about his sexuality now understands the
importance of representation.
He explained to Cornish that he was a teen who had fallen in love with
acting when he saw his favorite movie star “heartthrob” actor Tab
Hunter lose work after a tabloid reported that Hunter was gay. It was a
cautionary tale for Takei.
“You could not aspire to be an actor, to be hired by a producer in a
Hollywood if it was known that you were gay,” he said. “And so I
put myself in my own self created, invisible barbwire prison camp. The
term then was ‘closeted.’ I was visible in other social and justice
issues, but I never touched my own situation because I desperately,
passionately wanted to be an actor.”
Takei came out in 2005 amid the fight for marriage equality.
He has used his popularity as having starred as Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu
in the beloved “Star Trek” franchise to give voice to what he views
as injustices.
These days, he’s raising his voice about the policies of the Trump
administration.
“We have what I call ‘Klingon in the White House,’” he said.
“This authoritarian, self-important, singularly minded person there
advocating for erasure.”
Takei also has his memories of how he and his family were treated
during World War II.
“They categorized us as ‘enemy alien.’ We were neither,” he
said. “We were American born, educated, patriotic Americans and yet
they had this falsity and they fanned the flames of hatred. The whole
country was swept up.”
The camp where he and his family were forced to live was the result of
an executive order. He said his father had shared with him how
important the constitution is and often quoted President Abraham
Lincoln’s Gettysburg address.
Now as an adult, Takei recognizes that then President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, who signed the executive order that led to the camps got
“swept up” in the “hysteria” of the time and “panicked out of
ignorance” about the Japanese Americans who resembled the people who
bombed Peal Harbor.
“This is where teachers and librarians are the pillars of
democracy,” Takei said. “They can teach them this truth that
people, even great presidents, can be stampeded by hysteria. And
that’s what we’re going through right now.”
Such truth is vital, according to Takei, given what he sees as the lies
told by politicians that are believed by voters until it’s too late.
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