Famous for being helmsman Hikaru Sulu of the USS Enterprise in the original Star Trek series, actor and author George Takei is America’s clever gay grandfather. Takei currently plays to an audience of thousands via social media and is known for quotable and insightful Facebook and Twitter posts on everything from politics to gender issues to cute animal macros. On April 2nd, George alienated a decent amount of his followers when he posted this meme.
As a mother, wife, and child, I was annoyed and almost a little hurt.
My 54-year-old mother sat nearby, her eyes deep in her Catherine Crier book. We had stayed up late despite her return flight being early in the morning. I was rubbing my wrists in anxiousness, set back from the laptop when she glanced over. I turned the screen toward her.
“Who posted that?”
“George Takei.”
“The actor?”
“Yeah. He posts a lot of stuff, but nothing like this usually.”
“Weird.”
“Mom, how does that make you feel? That society says you’re a failure? That I’m a failure?”
A very long pause.
“Well, it doesn’t make me feel good.”
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Sophia St James is all smiles. The former stripper and current queer pornographer, activist, and sex educator, had taken a seat on the soft couch of the quiet, NE Portland feminist bookstore. The perpetually busy James had found a few minutes from her day to meet with me and I was thrilled.