Los Angeles - George Takei, best known for his role as Mr Sulu in Star Trek, came out as a homosexual in the current issue of a magazine covering the Los Angeles gay and lesbian community.

The play opened on Wednesday at the David Henry Hwang Theatre in Los Angeles, the same day that Frontiers magazine featured a story on Takei's coming out.

"The world has changed from when I was a young teen feeling ashamed for being gay," he said. "The issue of gay marriage is now a political issue. That would have been unthinkable when I was young."

Takei, a Japanese-American who lived in a US internment camp from the age of four to eight, said he grew up feeling ashamed of his ethnicity and sexuality. He likened prejudice against gays to racial segregation.

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