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George Takei Is Out for Justice

George TakeiCredit...Andrew T. Warman for The New York Times

You’re very busy for someone your age. You’ve written three books; you have a web series; and your musical, “Allegiance,” based on your family’s time in an internment camp during World War II, will debut on Broadway in November. As a matter of fact, I just came back from the posting of the marquee at the Long­acre Theater. I just wish my father could have been there. Takei is his surname, and the play is about an event that affected him so profoundly. He came back to Los Angeles from the camp with nothing — literally penniless — and was living on Skid Row.

In a recent TED Talk, you explained that you’re no longer angry with America over your internment. In fact, you’re an outspoken patriot. How were you able to be so forgiving? Well, my father was, too. When I was a teenager, I had many long after-dinner conversations with him, and he explained American democracy to me. He said, “Democracy can be as great as the people can be, but it’s also as fallible as people are.”

You use your considerable following on social media — 8.7 million people on Facebook alone — to advocate same-sex marriage and acceptance causes. Internment seems like a thematic departure for you. I think it’s the same thing. When I was going to gay bars in my 20s and 30s, the older guys there explained to me that the police would occasionally raid these places and march the clients out, load them onto paddy wagons, drive them down to the station, photograph them, fingerprint them and put their names on a list. They were doing nothing wrong, and it was criminalized.

Are social-justice causes the only reason you’re on social media? No, no. It started as a strategy. I was developing “Allegiance” about seven or eight years ago, but the fan base I had at that time was essentially made up of my “Star Trek” friends, the geeks and nerds. I had to find a way to grow that base, and I found that humor was the best way to do that. And so I started posting funny memes, and as it grew I started adding my commentary about social-justice issues. And lo and behold, people connected with that.

Do you really think that racists and homophobes might change their ways from reading Facebook posts? Well, look at me. When I got married to Brad in 2008, I was barely conscious of the fact that I was in an interracial marriage. The entire country was in turmoil over this issue about 50 years ago, but today we barely think about it. Now the fuss is about same-sex marriage.

You’ve had a not-so-private feud with your “Star Trek” co-star William Shatner for years now. Last year on “Real Time With Bill Maher,” you called him “self-centered.” What is behind this tension? It’s not tension, it’s all coming from Bill. Whenever he needs a little publicity for a project, he pumps up the so-called controversy between us.

He called you psychotic. That seems strong for someone who just wants attention. Two months after my wedding, he went on YouTube and ranted and raved about our not sending him an invitation. We had. If he had an issue, he could have easily just phoned us before the wedding, simple as that. But he didn’t. And the reason he raised that fuss two months later is because he was premiering his new talk show, “Raw Nerve.”

But your distaste for Shatner goes all the way back to the set of “Star Trek,” at least according to your autobiography, “To the Stars.” It’s difficult working with someone who is not a team player. The rest of the cast all understand what makes a scene work — it’s everybody contributing to it. But Bill is a wonderful actor, and he knows it, and he likes to have the camera on him all the time.

If you could forgive the United States for putting you in an internment camp, surely you can forgive William Shatner for being William Shatner? I don’t need to forgive him. I’ve already invited him to the opening night of “Allegiance.”

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Page 58 of the Sunday Magazine with the headline: George Takei Is Out for Justice. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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