George Takei

George Takei is a Japanese-American actor and activist best known for playing Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek: The Original Series (1966). He came out as gay in October 2005 in an interview with Frontiers magazine, explaining that he had kept his sexuality private for decades out of fear rooted in his childhood experience of Japanese-American internment during World War II. He married his longtime partner Brad Altman, a producer and actor who later took the name Brad Takei, in 2008, becoming one of the first same-sex couples to wed in California after the state Supreme Court briefly legalized marriage equality. Takei has since leveraged his enormous social media following to become one of the most visible advocates for LGBTQ+ rights, marriage equality, and broader civil rights, frequently drawing parallels between the internment of Japanese Americans and the historical persecution of LGBTQ+ people.