George Takei is awesome

I don’t know why I never knew how awesome George Takei is before. I’ve always been a Star Trek fan, and Sulu’s always been high on my list of favorite characters (not least for his bit in the epised “The Naked Time,” in which he storms the bridge shirtless and brandishing a foil.) For that reason, I’d always suspected George Takei is awesome, but I never learned the true extent of his awesomeness until yesterday. Let me try to break it down for you.

1. His father named him after King George VI. That’s awesome.
2. He spent much of his childhood in a Japanese American internment camp. That isn’t awesome, of course, but despite the fact that such an experiment would make most people bitter and angry at the United States, Mr. Takei and his family continued to participate in public policy after they were released. George himself served as student council president in junior high, and later served for eleven years on the board of directors of the Southern California Rapid Transit Direct. That is awesome.
3. He recently announced that he will be marrying his partner in September. George Takei has long been active in fighting for gay rights, and now that California has acknowledged the right for gay people to get married, he will be able to enjoy some of those hard-won rights by marrying his boyfriend, Brad Altman. That’s awesome.

If you still doubt that George Takei is awesome, check out the Wikipedia article in his name, and his official website. Also check out this humorous public service announcement, clearly from a comedy variety show, though my efforts to find out which have been thwarted.

You can’t tell me that isn’t awesome.

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Tags: california, gay marriage, gay rights, george takei, japanese american internment camps, star trek, sulu