If you have somehow missed the It Gets Better project it is a series designed to “communicate to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender youth around the world that it gets better, and to create and inspire the changes needed to make it better for them.”
For George Takei things got much better on several fronts. Takei spent a good part of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp during World War II. He spent much of his early career hiding who he was because he wanted to be an actor and when he began there was no “gay rights movement” to speak of. Coming out, in the 1950s and 60s would instantly finish your career.
Here is George’s video about the path from barbed wire fences to cultural icon.