Actor George Takei is taking fans to a place where few have gone before, telling the story of his life as a closeted gay man before coming out at 68 years old.
Takei tells this story in his new full-color graphic novel “It Rhymes with Takei,” the second time the “Star Trek” actor decided to tell his life’s story using pictures.
“My last book, ‘They Called Us Enemy’, was about my childhood behind barbed wire fences, and I did it as a graphic memoir and became a best seller. And I thought, ‘Well, people like this form. It’s readable,'” he explained to KTLA 5’s Melvin Robert. “There are kids who like looking at pictures, and I discovered that with ‘They Called Us Enemy,’ seniors like to look at pictures too. So I said, ‘Well, this is a story I want as many people as I can get to read about it.'”
In this book, he explained that he was “incarcerated in a different kind of barbed wire fence” for being closeted for the majority of his life.
However, when he was 68 years old, he broke that door down after being enraged at then-California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger for vetoing the Religious Freedom & Civil Marriage Protection Act, which would have legalized same-sex marriages in the Golden State in the early 2000s.
Takei explained that the bill had passed the state legislature, which was already a “landmark event” in the country at that time because no other state had achieved this.
“All it needed was one more signature, that of our governor. When the bill landed on his desk, he vetoed it, playing to his right-wing base, and I was raging, because I knew the kind of campaign he carried on for the governor’s office,” the “Mulan” actor said. “I’m from Hollywood. I’ve worked with gays and lesbians…. a good number of my gay friends voted for him. He betrayed the people’s trust in him.”
Takei pointed out that Schwarzenegger’s stance on marriage was hypocritical, as he committed adultery while married to his ex-wife Maria Shriver.
Before this, Takei said he had opened up about his sexuality to a few people, but said “it wasn’t a good experience.”
However, when that veto came down, so did Takei’s walls.
“When rage came in, that prompted me to proudly say, ‘I’m gay and I’m going to do something about it.’ This was in 2005, I came out blasting our governor for his hypocrisy, and I came out and partnered with the Human Rights Campaign, and they organized a nationwide campaign to speak on LGBTQ justice.”
Since then, Takei has amassed a large social media following using his platform to gain awareness surrounding many human rights issues.
After turning 88 in April, Takei explained that he’s “born again.”
“It’s a long, old, ancient Japanese 88 is a lucky year. That is when you enter your second childhood, become a child again,” he explained. “Spontaneous and saying out loud what you really feel like, saying, and the celebration involves a great big party.”
His husband, Brad, planned a huge bash, where part of the celebration included dressing up the “Blue Eye Samurai” star in a gold or crimson happi coat with a bonnet.
He’ll be signing his book at the Barnes & Noble at The Grove on June 15 and at Vroman’s Books in Pasadena on June 20.
“It Rhymes with Takei” is out in stores now.
