Zachary Quinto says election is ‘bleak and dangerous’ for equality, Trump resembles Star Trek villain
Zachary Quinto has compared Donald Trump to a Star Trek villain as he warned about his impact on equality.
Quinto, who came out in 2011 and plays Spock in the ‘Star Trek’ reboot film series, spoke to TIME in a wide-ranging interview that touched on LGBT issues and Donald Trump.
In recent months the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee has tacked against LGBT rights – pledging to appoint justices to repeal equal marriage, come out against federal anti-discrimination protections, and coming out in favour of anti-transgender laws after repeated flip-flopping.
Meanwhile he confirmed running mate would be Indiana Governor Mike Pence – who has signed a state law giving businesses the right to discriminate against gay people on the grounds of religion. Pence also proposed draining HIV prevention funding to fund ‘gay cure’ therapy.
In the interview, Quinto joked that many of upcoming film Star Trek: Beyond’s themes seemed prescient given the political current climate.
He said: “Our adversary in this movie is a being who’s diametrically opposed to the Federation.
“He wants to destroy a place that’s a hub for different species and races—people from all over the galaxy coming together and inhabiting this one place. It’s weirdly parallel to what’s going on all over the world right now.
“There’s waves of nationalism and xenophobia and fear-based thinking and intolerance. It’s alarming.
“At the end of the day, this is a blockbuster summer popcorn movie—we’re not trying to delve into any of these themes explicitly—but what Star Trek represents is the idea that unity will always overcome hatred.”
When the interviewer raised Trump and Pence’s anti-LGBT record, Quinto continued: “There are indicators of the pendulum swinging the other way right now in terms of the political temperature and the landscape of Trump.
“It’s absurd to me, but I have to have faith that we’ll endure and triumph.
“I have to feel like people will look at these two old white men, who represent everything that is negative in history, and say there are more people who want to go a different direction. I hope so. I am scared. I don’t take anything for granted.
“I have a lot of people in my life that think there’s no way Trump will win. I don’t believe that for a second.
“We have to fight with everything we have to continue the path that we’ve been able to gain such ground on in the last five to ten years.
“It’s just a bleak and dangerous moment in our geopolitical landscape right now. It’s unprecedented in our lifetime how precariously we’re all perched—not just here in this country but around the world.”
