INFLUENCES: GEORGE TAKEI

I was going through old photos and found this picture from a few years back of me with George Takei. I met him when I was still in college at UW-Madison, and he was doing an HRC-sponsored speaking tour, primarily addressing LGBT rights and talking about his experience growing up in a Japanese internment camp. It was a very good, sometimes heartbreaking, but ultimately very hopeful and inspiring talk.

The funny thing is that everyone was asking him questions about civil rights or Star Trek... and I was the only one to ask him about his role in Mulan. He didn't even seem to remember it at first, and then after a few seconds, in his very low, low voice he said "Oh that's right, I was the fat ghost. Heh heh heh." A delightful moment I will cherish as long as I live.

I admire him for several reasons. I am a huge fan of Star Trek, and it's helped shaped my humanistic values in such profound ways I could probably devote a very long essay to it; he's been an absolutely wonderful advocate for equal rights, and because he was on the original show I found that his example made it easier to talk to older people about social issues such as marriage equality; and when I met him in person, he was so incredibly nice, it really made me proud to be a fan. I am very happy to see that he has enjoyed quite a bit of social media popularity as of late (some people think he might be the king of facebook). George is a great guy and has a lot of really important and interesting things to say. We're all lucky to have him, and I feel blessed to have gotten to meet him in person.