Gay Sulu
By Steve Sommers, Sat Dec 10th
Actor George Takei of Star Trek fame has come out of the closetrecently and announced his gayness to the world. The actorplayed the character of Sulu the helmsman on the TV show StarTrek and later in the movies based on the television series.Takei, in his announcement, cited the fact that society haschanged to such an extent that he no longer felt he had toconceal his sexual orientation. But mostly, I believe, he knewthat it wasn't going to negatively affect his career as much asit might have, both because of the more tolerant atmosphere inthe United States and also because being a pretty old guy bythis time with money in the bank, his career is undoubtedlywinding down. If he has a career at all. He had been slated to appear in the last Star Trek movie withthe original cast in a very small part, but he found out thatwere he to decline this part, the writers would make a referenceto Captain Sulu having his own Star Ship. Which is what hedecided to do. The other Star Trek actors roundly criticized himfor turning down a real-life role paying actual money so thatthe fictional character he used to play could get an imaginarypromotion. I'm guessing that he knew that whatever lasting fameand immortality he would ever have was tied to the character ofSulu and he wants his obituary to read that he played the roleof Captain Sulu instead of merely Commander Sulu. It also showsa lot of dedication to the creative process to pass on realcash. I'd read his autobiography a number of years ago. Obviously hehadn't made any reference to his lifestyle back then, but I dorecall him saying that it was difficult for a Japanese actor toget any roles aside from 'houseboy' in plays and movies. Kids,back in those days every gay man was an actor. Every single oneof them (for the most part), every single day had to pretendthat he was straight
and not acknowledge the thoughts anddesires that were illegal in all fifty states. It's no surprisethat so many of them chose to get paid for what they were doingalready for free.
Star Trek for it's time was extremely ground breaking merely forshowing an egalitarian work place where men and women and peoplefrom different countries and ethnic groups worked side by side.That work place did not exist in the mid 1960's and to even showit as a possibility was controversial. Portraying openly gaycharacters would have been entirely beyond the pale. If you look at old time TV shows and movies you can see thatthere were gay characters portrayed, but only for comic relief.You know, look at those funny men who act like women - that sortof thing. My belief is that a lot of the 'buddy' movies of the past wereactually code for gay relationships. Look at Abbot and Costello.Don't tell me that those two men weren't involved in a lovingmonogamous relationship. Or Hope and Crosby. Why were theyalways on the road to somewhere or the other? It was becausethey would keep getting run out of town for their deviant waysand had to take to the road. Martin and Lewis? Okay. Sure therewas always a lot of talk about Dean and his women - so maybe hewas Bi - but you always, always knew who his first love was,didn't you? At the end of the movie, who did Dean Martin end upwith? And the three stooges, what was their story? Why were thesethree men always together everywhere? Well, I've got the answerand it's simple if you think about it: Gay swingers. About the author:Steve Sommers is the author of Breakfast with the Antichrist.Visit his Website at http://www.breakfastwiththeantichrist.com |
