Starship Enterprise Helmsman Hikaru Sulu (portrayed by George Takei in the original series) has come out of the closet and announced his homosexuality to the United Federation of Planets.
"Sure, I'm gay," said Sulu. "Captain Kirk couldn't deal with it, so he transferred me off the Enterprise and made sure I got my own command on another ship. They used to say that the Navy was full of us in the old days, but Star Fleet is full of us now! And we've got a whole galaxy full of buff aliens to seek out and boldly go where no man has gone before!"
When asked how his other ship mates reacted to his revelation, Sulu said that there were mixed feelings.
"Spock, of course, only gave me a raised eyebrow and then told me to live long and prosper."
"Uhura told me that anytime I wanted to find out what a real woman was like, to just remember that her hailing frequencies were open."
"Scotty said that I had to stay out of engineering because he wasn't letting any of the girly men play with his warp drive."
"Chekov was shocked and dismayed because he had to sit beside me for years at the navigation station. He hoped that people wouldn't think me his lover by assosciation."
"Nurse Chapel didn't have anything to say about it. I guess she didn't get any lines in this episode. Neither did Yoeman Rand. She just smiled like usual and handed Kirk his clipboard before walking off the bridge."
"McCoy was upset. He said something like, "Dammit, Sulu, I'm an old country doctor, not a guidance counselor.""
When asked how he was handling things differently on his new ship, Sulu responded by saying that, "we are renaming it the Starship Richard Simmons. I'm getting rid off all of the stainless steel metal, because that is so not chic, and covering everything. The only part of the Enterprise that was ever touchy-feely was inside of Captain Kirk's cabin; it's not that way on my watch! We'll also pay show tunes over the intercom system all of the time. Fridays will be drag night in the ship's lounge. My whole ship is going to be the pleasure palace of the stars!"
