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Is Sulu gay?

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I could just throw the cat amongst the pigeons and say that Kirk is gay, in denial and over-compensating by hitting on every female he sees. :lol:

If an actor is gay that doesn't make every character he plays gay.

As for he must be straight because of Demora, we never did meet her mother...

Just a thought!
-Bry
 
It would be really nice if people would get off the "Sulu is gay, so let's make gay jokes" schtick in the caption contests. It's a cheap, lazy way of playing the game, in my opinion.

yup

tiresome and unintelligent

Shows how far we have to go if people on a STAR TREK BBS of all places are still making fun at homosexuality.

Would be like people writing watermelon or slave captions under Uhura.
 
I should hope that by the end of THIS century that a person's sexual preferences/orientation won't matter any more than their gender, skin color, birthplace, religion, political views would. Of course, I had the same hope for the LAST century.

Seriously, let Sulu be Sulu, and let George be George. They're not the same entity...
 
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I don't know why people have to equate the two. It's just not funny to me. Sure, George Takei came out. And that's his own personal decision. I'm happy that he found a life partner and they were able to be married.

However, it was established very early on in 1st-season TOS that Sulu is NOT gay. He is as much a ladies' man as any of the male regulars.

It would be really nice if people would get off the "Sulu is gay, so let's make gay jokes" schtick in the caption contests. It's a cheap, lazy way of playing the game, in my opinion.
Well said. :bolian:
 
At first glance, I thought this might be a "Titor-Esque" thread, however after reading some of the posts, it raises an interesting point

FACT: Sulu is not gay, we've seen him have romances with female characters, sure you can argue that he's not exclusively gay, but whats the point? George Takei played Sulu as a straight character,

The humor aspect comes from various Western Comedy concepts, when George Takei announced he was gay, many comedians made sketches portraying Sulu as a closet Homosexual and/or a character that no one suspects is gay, despite his flamboyanat attitude and admittedly funny lines ("Hello"! "Set Phasers To Fabulous"! etc), the fact is Takei himself has taken most of this in good stride, otherwise comedians would omit it from their acts, after all Takei has a lot of respect going for him, he's arguably the most hard working (besides Shatner) actor from TOS, he's lent his voice to hundreds of TV Shows, Movies, Animations and he's been involved with comedy shows such as SNL
 
. I'll also remind the jury that Sulu had a daughter.

Let it be known that Danny99 believes gays shouldn't have children.

Where the fuck did I ever say that? Seriously, where did I say that?

I said Sulu has a daughter as a point of evidence that the character wasn't gay during TOS as he had to be part of her conception.

Sure it could have gone done differently then it does right now, but where did I say gays can't have children you fucking troll!
 
. I'll also remind the jury that Sulu had a daughter.

Let it be known that Danny99 believes gays shouldn't have children.

Let it be known that further comments like this will be considered to be trolling. The discussion is on the character of Sulu.

It's a borderline thread due to the potential for trouble. What I don't get is two things:

- thinking that a straight or gay actor can't play a character that is the opposite of his real life orientation. It's ACTING people! More often than not, actors play characters who are very different than them.

- for a supposedly liberal group (Trek fans), I see a lot of hateful things said about Takei/Sulu, especially in caption threads. Do you think the fact that it's a "joke" makes it OK to display bigotry? Do you not see how ugly it is when people post that stuff?
 
Thank you T'Bonz for your swift response. Prologic9, the things I would say if I was a flaming troll like you.
 
. I'll also remind the jury that Sulu had a daughter.

Let it be known that Danny99 believes gays shouldn't have children.

Where the fuck did I ever say that? Seriously, where did I say that?

I said Sulu has a daughter as a point of evidence that the character wasn't gay during TOS as he had to be part of her conception.

Sure it could have gone done differently then it does right now, but where did I say gays can't have children you fucking troll!

I'm sorry but if you're going to claim that having children is an indication of being straight, then you're very clearly inferring that gays can't have children. You can't have one without the other.

I didn't troll you, I just pointed out the obvious stupidity of your 'evidence.' If I wanted to troll you I would have said;

"Let it be known that Danny99 believes gays shouldn't be allowed to have children."

^^See that's very different, because it infers bigotry on your part. But what I originally wrote doesn't make any claims as to why you think gays can't have kids.
 
Let it be known that Danny99 believes gays shouldn't have children.

Where the fuck did I ever say that? Seriously, where did I say that?

I said Sulu has a daughter as a point of evidence that the character wasn't gay during TOS as he had to be part of her conception.

Sure it could have gone done differently then it does right now, but where did I say gays can't have children you fucking troll!

I'm sorry but if you're going to claim that having children is an indication of being straight, then you're very clearly inferring that gays can't have children. You can't have one without the other.

I didn't troll you, I just pointed out the obvious stupidity of your 'evidence.' If I wanted to troll you I would have said;

"Let it be known that Danny99 believes gays shouldn't be allowed to have children."

^^See that's very different, because it infers bigotry on your part. But what I originally wrote doesn't make any claims as to why you think gays can't have kids.

So you point out evidence by calling me a bigot? For Sulu to have created a daughter in the most basic and well known fashion, intercourse between a man and a woman, he couldn't have been gay.

Sure Demora could have been grown out of a test tube or adopted, but in most other cases, Sulu had to have love for a woman in order for her to be culpable in the creation of a daughter.

You've attacked my integrity and have picked this fight. If you were really just attacking my argument, you could've said "I disagree" not "Let it be know that Danny99 believes gays shouldn't have children." This infers that I believe gays shouldn't be allowed to have children period, which is totally false. So go pick a fight on some other board.
 
There are two ways to look at this question:

The context of the show itself and it's universe, and the context of real life being taken in to consideration as well.

First: In the context of the original series, films and spinoffs, I think it is remarkably short-sighted to assume that simply because Sulu fathered a child then it must immediately, necessarily and unequivocally follow that he is/was "straight."

Certainly this would be the likely intention of the writers of Star Trek Generations when they conceived the character of Demora Sulu, but it's important to remember that originally, Demora was to be Chekov's daughter, not Sulu's. (See the background notes for Star Trek Generations in Larry Nemecek's Star Trek: The Next Generation Companion for verification of this).

Even that however does not necessarily preclude the possibility that Sulu may have in fact been gay/omnisexual/pansexual/bisexual/whatever.

For whatever reason, it was an issue the writers never felt the need to address, whether because Sulu was never meant to be portrayed as anything other than we have seen or perhaps because in the 23rd century, it wouldn't have mattered, anymore than Uhura was black or that Spock had pointy ears.

In the context of the real world, many "straight" actors have portrayed "gay" characters and many "gay" actors have portrayed "straight" characters. By this (faulty) logic, would David Marcus have been gay as well?

It makes little sense to me that simply because George Takei has revealed to the world he is "gay" that it must automatically call to question whether or not Sulu was as well. It strikes me as an issue whose origin is born more out of the fanbase's admittedly charming at times inquisitive nature but also its decidedly uncharming need to find things to complain about or be negative about. "I know Trekkies, they love to complain about things..."

As for why the jokes are being made all the time at George Takei's expense, I think that's as much to do with how George conducts himself now in public and in the media. That's not a knock at all against him, I think he's become one of the more positive figures in gay and lesbian politics, tackling the issue with passion and vigor but also a healthy sense of humor about the pursuit of equal rights for gays and lesbians. In as much as Shatner has embraced his late-career resurgence as a comedic actor, Takei is likewise embracing his bawdy sense of humor and being made fun of goes hand in hand with that.

I would love it if the more closed-minded members of the fanbase would drop this particular issue as a reason to complain or knock Takei/Sulu but some people just don't seem to get the overall message of acceptance and tolerance that the show has advocated for all these years, and frankly that's just sad.
 
^ I agree. I am always surprised to read Trek fans who don't believe in the IDIC principle. Why are they watching Star Trek? Watch any other show, enjoy a stupid proceedural, or sitcom, don't waste your time with Star Trek if you just don't get it.
 
^ I agree. I am always surprised to read Trek fans who don't believe in the IDIC principle. Why are they watching Star Trek? Watch any other show, enjoy a stupid proceedural, or sitcom, don't waste your time with Star Trek if you just don't get it.
because some watch Trek as simply entertainment and don't invest in the message behind it. I'm not one of them but I know of folks that do. I can honestly say, many of them lack the ability to empathize.
 
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