{"id":173856,"date":"2025-06-10T22:02:41","date_gmt":"2025-06-10T22:02:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/10\/george-takei-says-coming-out-was-liberating\/"},"modified":"2025-06-10T22:02:41","modified_gmt":"2025-06-10T22:02:41","slug":"george-takei-says-coming-out-was-liberating","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2025\/06\/10\/george-takei-says-coming-out-was-liberating\/","title":{"rendered":"George Takei says coming out was &#8216;liberating&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"byline\">\n<p>        <time itemprop=\"datePublished\" content=\"2025-06-10\" datetime=\"1749592961\" pubdate=\"\">10 June 2025<\/time>\n    <\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/george-takei\/\" class=\"exposure-link \" data-linktrack=\"LinkTracker,articleExposure,george-takei\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">George Takei<\/a> found coming out to be &#8220;liberating&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>                            <\/p>\n<p class=\"image-caption landscape\">George Takei came out as gay in 2005<\/p>\n<p>The 88-year-old actor came out as gay two decades ago, when he was 68, and George now admits that it was a freeing experience.<\/p>\n<p>The former Star Trek actor told USA Today: &#8220;It feels very liberating.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t have to be on my guard, kind of mentally fencing and saying what I want to say but without giving myself away. I developed that skill, but now I don&#8217;t need to. I can be candid and forthright.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>George had actually been with Brad Altman &#8211; whom he married in 2008 &#8211; for two decades before he came out. However, the decision to discuss his sexuality publicly helped to lift a weight off his shoulders.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe shared: &#8220;Here I am protecting my job, my career, what I want to do, while others who had the same difference that I did were sacrificing all that and actively engaging with the larger society and making progress.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nGeorge and Brad are contrasting personalities, but their relationship has stood the test of time.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe actor explained: &#8220;Brad is a strict disciplinarian. Brad is detail-oriented and he&#8217;s organised and he brings that detail and organisation to my life so that I can do what I do.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;We understand each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nMeanwhile, George claimed in 2022 that &#8220;issues still remain&#8221; for LGBTQ actors in Hollywood.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe veteran actor observed that there&#8217;s been some &#8220;amazing progress&#8221; in terms of representation and acceptance in the movie industry, but George thinks there&#8217;s still a lot of work that needs to be done.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: &#8220;There\u2019s no denying we have made amazing progress in terms of telling the LGBTQ story and having LGBTQ performers now acting and maintaining a career.<\/p>\n<p>\n&#8220;But \u2026 there\u2019s always that \u2018but\u2019, in Hollywood and in America. Issues still remain.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nGeorge likened hiding his sexuality to a form of &#8220;torture&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>\nHe explained: \u201cIt was torture being closeted, because my instinct was to speak out.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\nGeorge also admitted that the sense of guilt gnawed away at him for years.<\/p>\n<p>\nThe actor &#8211; who played Hikaru Sulu in the Star Trek franchise &#8211; said: &#8220;I felt an immense sense of guilt in not standing up.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><!-- Pagination --><\/p>\n<p><!-- playbuzz --><br \/>\n<!-- end playbuzz--><\/p>\n<p><!-- \n\n<div data-cn-project=\"femalefirst\">\n    \n<\/div>\n\n --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n<!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<p>    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><br \/>\n    <!-- Outbrain { date: 2018\/06\/08 } --><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.femalefirst.co.uk\/celebrity\/george-takei-says-coming-liberating-1420254.html?f=rss\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>10 June 2025 George Takei found coming out to be &#8220;liberating&#8221;. George Takei came out as gay in 2005 The 88-year-old actor came out as gay two decades ago, when he was 68, and George now admits that it was a freeing experience. The former Star Trek actor told USA Today: &#8220;It feels very liberating. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":173857,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[11636,11635],"class_list":{"0":"post-173856","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-make-up","8":"tag-brad-altman","9":"tag-george-takei"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173856","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173856"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173856\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173856"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173856"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/entertainment.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173856"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}