Opinion: George Takei: Enough of Trump’s Cruel Chaos. We Must Vote Harris

Mark Twain is credited for observing that “History doesn't repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” When you’ve been around as long as I have, you really start to feel that in your bones, especially in this election.

On the one hand, you’ve got the GOP ticket, which feeds upon white grievance, fear, division and the othering of vulnerable communities. When I hear Trump say that immigrants are “poisoning the blood” of our nation, I can’t help but remember how unscrupulous politicians attacked the Japanese American community after Pearl Harbor. It was our “blood,” you see, that was somehow suspect. Even though most of us had never been to Japan, even one drop of Japanese blood was enough to send a child to the internment camps, according to the government authorities.

When I read about Project 2025, with which Trump is deeply tied, and see that its authors are drafting policies favoring traditional families with traditional gender roles, with the government maintaining “a biblically based, social science–reinforced definition of marriage and family,” I know they are talking about erasing the gay community. They did this before, you see, back before we passed legislation protecting LGBTQ+ rights and liberties. I understand that my own marriage to my husband Brad would be once again at risk under a second Trump term.

Read more at The Daily Beast.