Actor George Takei has said the
response to his coming out gay was overwhelming but not all of it was
positive.
The 74-year-old Takei, who is best
known for playing Hikaru Sulu, helmsman of the USS Enterprise on the
science fiction series Star Trek, came out in 2005.
In a wide-ranging interview with the
Tallahassee
Democrat, Takei said that while he was out to family, friends
and some co-workers in 2005, then-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's
veto of a gay marriage bill approved by lawmakers spurred him to
speak out.
“I watched it on TV with my blood
boiling. That's when I decided to speak to the press, so I've been
out since 2005. You're not really out until the press says you are
out, I guess,” he said.
“[When I came out] it was
overwhelmingly positive – my computer exploded with emails,”
Takei said. “But 10 percent were hate mails that were very ugly
and ominously threatening. I'm talking about death threats.”
Takei married his husband Brad Altman
in 2008 before Proposition 8, California's gay marriage ban, was
narrowly approved by voters.