Spent the day in L.A. this past Sunday. George Takei spoke at the Autry Museum about his experience as a Japanese-American during WWII when he and his family were forced into an internment camp, as well as his reasons for coming out as a gay man. He spoke without notes for nearly an hour and then engaged in a Q&A with the audience for about 45 minutes. A very enjoyable afternoon.

“If you look at the history of the United States, we have been making progress,” he said. “When the nation was founded, there was no role for women in the institutions of American society. Or for blacks. Or for Latinos. Now we have three women in the Supreme Court. Three women have become U.S. Secretaries of State. We have a Latino mayor. New Mexico has a Latino governor. And there’s a Latina in the Supreme Court. We have now an African American as the President of the United States. When you look at it in the larger historical context we have made incredible progress. With much grief, much pain, enormous suffering, but we’ve come to where we are.”