CALGARY, AB (CinemaSpy) -- On May 6 supporters of America's Democratic party will be voting in primaries in Indiana and North Carolina. Voters have to choose between a candidate who could become America's first woman President and someone who could be the country's first Commander-in-Chief with African-American heritage. According to Star Trek actor George Takei, who played Sulu in the original series, that choice is a reflection of positive changes that have happened in society since the 1960s. It is partly because of Star Trek that those changes have come about, Takei believes.

"I think Star Trek has played a part in the broadening of people's thinking," Takei said at the Calgary Comic and Entertainment Expo in April.

Reflecting on the current campaign for the Democratic Party nomination, Takei expressed his pleasure at the diversity represented by the two candidates. He also revealed that he has a preferred contender. He said he would get behind whichever candidate wins, though.

"Who would have thought that a woman and an African-American [would be] the two leading candidates for the Democratic nomination," Takei said. "And the early polling says that the next president will be a Democrat, whoever that might be. It's an amazing phenomenon and I think it's a real commentary about the dynamism of the American democratic process. I am a supporter of Hillary Clinton but whoever gets the nomination, I can easily support that candidate. On issues, essentially they are very similar. I think it's the slight nuanced differences and the fact that one's a woman and one's an African-American man that is bringing support for one candidate or the other ... I am absolutely delighted."

On the subject of racial prejudice, Takei suggested that the press has historically borne some responsibility for promoting inequality through stereotyping. He illustrated the point by recounted his family's harrowing wartime experiences.

"Certainly as an ethnic minority and as a Japanese American, we've been stereotyped," said Takei. "In [World War Two] the government felt they could incarcerate us for no good reason other than the fact that we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbour. It was the most unconstitutional thing. There were no charges, no crime. In the American judicial process, if they arrest you, you have a right to know why you are being arrested, then you demand a trial to verify if those charges are true or not, and [if so], then you're imprisoned. In our case, I was four years old at the time and I remember seeing these [two] American soldiers with bayonets and rifles stomp up to the front door of our Los Angeles home and order us out. I'll never forget that day, how scared my dad was. My mother was crying. We were taken first to a horse stable. Can you imagine? ... For my parents it was probably the most humiliating and devastating experience in their lives. We were too young to really understand, my brother, my sister and I. I was the oldest; my sister was a baby. Then, after a couple of months there, the camps were built and we were shipped from Los Angeles to the swamps of Arkansas."

Takei said that history has shown that stereotyping can be used to do inhuman and damaging things and that doesn't only extend to prejudice along ethnic lines. Society is changing, though, and people are becoming more open to various forms of diversity, he said.

"Ethnic diversity you can see," said Takei. "The ideological diversity you can hear. But there is another [diversity], a diversity of sexual orientation. Three years ago I spoke with the press about being gay. I was gay back [in the 1960s, too] but society was different back then and it would have endangered any opportunity for advancement in my career if I had been open at that time. It's because society has changed that I was able to change with it. In 2005 a remarkable thing happened in the state of California. In the United States there is only one state that has legal same-sex marriage. That's the state of Massachusetts ... By the legislative process, not the judicial process as in Massachusetts, both houses of the California legislature — the Senate and the Assembly — passed the same-sex marriage bill. All that was required was one more additional signature, the signature of our governor. Our governor happens to be a movie star, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and when he ran for public office he made all these positive statements — he's from Hollywood, he's worked with gays and lesbians, he's comfortable with gays and lesbians — reflecting the social climate of the time. So I was almost confident that he would sign the bill and that bill would be the law of the state. When he played to the most reactionary right-wing sentiment of the Republican Party in California and vetoed that bill, I felt that I needed to speak out. And for my voice to be credible it needed to be authentic. So I spoke to the press for the first time and they deemed that to be my "coming out."

However Takei's statement was portrayed at the time, it was not actually when he started being open about being homosexual, he explained. That had been happening in different ways for many decades, he said.

"It was first to my family and then to my friends," Takei said. "But I wanted my relationship with my partner to be normal and natural. I didn't want it to be some dramatic statement that's accompanied by trumpet flourishes. I'm active in the community, I'm active in the political arena. Also, with Star Trek, too, when we had wrap parties or cast parties, I would bring my partner with me. And these are sophisticated people and they put two and two together ... [My partner and I] support non-profits and our names have been carved together on granite walls. So we have been out for many, many years. We've been to dinner at Walter [Koenig]'s home or Jimmy Doohan's home. Nichelle we've had over at our home for dinner and parties. We've been out naturally, normally, in a comfortable way. The only thing I had not done is talk to the press. When I talked to the press they deemed that my coming out. That was because society has gradually changed in terms of sexual orientation."