Excelsior!

First off, let me also applaud George Takei for revealing that he's gay a couple of days ago. It was a brave move and I commend him for it. I noticed two particular commentaries about this story elsewhere. On Little Yellow Different, which is a blog by a gay Asian guy who works for Yahoo, he gave a brief entry: "George Takei comes out of the closet, upping the number out-of-the-closet gay Asian male actors to two" (BD Wong being the other). Then there was this nice anecdote from David Edelstein over on Slate:

Where No Star Trek Actor Has Gone Before: What a shock 10 years ago to amble down to breakfast at a lovely Savannah B & B and find myself across the communal table from ... Mr. Sulu -- and with a young man who was clearly his lover! You can't tell from Star Trek that George Takei is a hugely theatrical presence, with a voice that ricochets off walls and a deep laugh. I didn't acknowledge his celebrity or ask him about Star Trek -- or the Japanese detention camp in which he spent part of his youth. We talked about the architecture and culture of Savannah, and he was remarkably observant (and friendly). He said he was on his way to the Renaissance Weekend at Hilton Head -- the legendary conference for the best and the brightest. I went upstairs and told my girlfriend (a late riser) that I'd just had breakfast with Mr. Sulu, that he was gay, and that he was going up to spend the weekend with Bill and Hillary Clinton and a lot of other important intellectuals. She said, "Uh-huh," and chalked this up to one too many mint juleps the night before. It was very satisfying to pick up the paper a few days later and read about the conference, attended by the Clintons, Robert Reich, etc., etc. -- "and, oddly," the reporter wrote, "George Takei from Star Trek."

So it wasn't a dream.

I've been itching to write about this for years. ... Congratulations, Mr. Takei, for being as unashamed as you were that morning, and for boldly entering this, our final cultural frontier for public figures.

Man, We've stayed in a bunch of B&B's (and Mrs. Mosley sleeps late!), so whay haven't I met a Star Trek actor at breakfast yet?!?!

Speaking of which, Star Trek geeks will get the double meaning of the post title.