George Takei Quotes

I watched pretty much every coming out video on YouTube that has ever been posted; I watched it in between 14 and a half and 15. Those coming out videos, and those people on YouTube, those brave, brave, brave people on YouTube, without them, I don't know where I'd be.

I came out to myself when I was about 15 or 16, and to my parents when I was 18. When you come out to your parents, that's when it's properly official.

Anyone in public life who comes out, comes out primarily for themselves, and their life is immediately improved. That's what happened to me.

Nowadays, if somebody in America is feeling alone and wants to find a coming out story, they just search 'coming out,' and they'll find millions of first-person examples of people telling their story.

Coming out was painful, but life got so much better for me.

I watched a million coming-out videos, and that was kind of how I accepted it myself.

I came out of the closet very young, and I had to cut my teeth pretty fast.

I realize it's a cliche, almost, that coming out of the closet is a very healthy and empowering thing to do, but for me, it really has been a truly wonderful thing.

Now the fact that people are saying, 'Oh my God, he's finally come out' - I was never in.

The difference between being in the closet and out of the closet as a gay man is such a huge shift. I feel so connected still to that 22-year-old, but the idea that I was not open with that part of my life - which I am now so open about - is sort of surreal.

It was shortly before my 18th birthday when I came out and admitted that I was gay.

The process of coming out is normally very disappointing. It's not that people react badly to it - they really don't care.

Gay men have to go through something to own their - who they are. They get beat up. They get ostracized. Whatever they go through, if they survive it, they come out very confident people.

I have never been outed by anyone but myself!

I think it's always good for gay people to come out, but it's also understandable why people might choose not to do so.

Telling the world is the most difficult experience of my life, but it is very close to having to live through the experience that occasion this meeting.

People who were close to me - family and friends - they knew about my sexuality.

My music is really about people connecting with their identities, even if they aren't Jewish.

I'm not even sure I want to use the term 'coming out.'

If I don't get a TV show next year because someone looks up my Wikipedia and it says 'openly gay,' then it's worth the risk because I've had so many years being openly gay and proud of myself as a role model.

I didn't want that 15 minutes of fame moment like, 'Oh, she said she was gay.'

When I was 15, I changed my name legally. I think it was largely due to my struggle about being gay. Everything just didn't fit, and I was trying to find things I could identify myself with, and it started with my name.

What's it like to figure out you're gay and then begin the process of coming out? Well, for most of my life, I felt doomed. I could imagine no path that would allow me to realize my authentic self. I felt the need to lie, even to myself, insisting: I am straight.

I learned that coming out was crucial to self-esteem.

My coming out was just so boring.