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George Takei Responds To Sexual Assault Allegation

Erin Donnelly
Last Updated 11 November 2017, 19:00
Photo: Noam Galai/WireImage.
Pictured: George Takei.
Updated on November 14, 2017 8:00 p.m.: George Takei took to Facebook to further address allegations of sexual misconduct, specifically an incident that occurred while being interviewed by Howard Stern.
"Many have raised concern over a back-and-forth between Howard Stern and myself, where we joked about me touching men during my Star Trek days fifty years ago. Out of context, I agree that the joke was distasteful, and I’m very sorry he and I made fun out of a serious matter," he wrote.
"For decades, I have played the part of a “naughty gay grandpa” when I visit Howard’s show, a caricature I now regret. But I want to be clear: I have never forced myself upon someone during a date. Sometimes my dates were the initiators, and sometimes I was. It was always by mutual consent. I see now that that it has come across poorly in the awkward sketch, and I apologize for playing along with Howard’s insinuation."
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Original story was published below on November 11, 3:30 p.m.
George Takei is using his social media platform to address allegations of sexual assault, Deadline reports. The Star Trek actor is accused of groping a then-23-year-old man at his home in 1981, an incident he denied taking place in a series of tweets posted this morning.
Yesterday Scott R. Brunton, a former model and actor, told The Hollywood Reporter that Takei invited him back to his Los Angeles condo for a drink. Brunton said that the drink made him feel "very disoriented and dizzy." He also alleged that Takei, an outspoken LGBT activist, tried to take his underwear off.
"We have the drink and he asks if I would like another," Brunton told THR. "And I said sure. So, I have the second one, and then all of a sudden, I begin feeling very disoriented and dizzy, and I thought I was going to pass out. I said I need to sit down and he said sit over here and he had the giant yellow beanbag chair. So I sat down in that and leaned my head back and I must have passed out."
"The next thing I remember I was coming to and he had my pants down around my ankles and he was groping my crotch and trying to get my underwear off and feeling me up at the same time, trying to get his hands down my underwear," he continued. "I came to and said, 'What are you doing?!' I said, 'I don't want to do this.' He goes, 'You need to relax. I am just trying to make you comfortable. Get comfortable.' And I said, 'No. I don't want to do this.' And I pushed him off and he said, 'OK, fine.' And I said I am going to go and he said, 'If you feel you must. You're in no condition to drive.' I said, 'I don't care I want to go.' So I managed to get my pants up and compose myself and I was just shocked. I walked out and went to my car until I felt well enough to drive home, and that was that."
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Brunton added that he met up with Takei years after the alleged event. In the 80-year-old star's response on Twitter, however, he claims to not remember ever meeting Brunton.
Takei told his followers that he was "shocked and bewildered" by Brunton's allegations, insisting that the events described "simply did not occur." He added that he was taking the claims "very seriously," but noted that they were "antithetical to my values and practices."
Brunton's accusations come a week after Takei spoke out against Kevin Spacey's coming out in the face of sexual assault allegations.
"When power is used in a non-consensual situation, it is a wrong," he told THR, the same publication which ran Brunton's account. "For Anthony Rapp, he has had to live with the memory of this experience of decades ago. For Kevin Spacey, who claims not to remember the incident, he was the older, dominant one who had his way. Men who improperly harass or assault do not do so because they are gay or straight — that is a deflection. They do so because they have the power, and they chose to abuse it."
If you have experienced sexual violence and are in need of crisis support, please visit the Rape Crisis website.
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