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HRC Coming Out spokesperson and famed Star Trek actor George Takei honored by having an asteroid named after him
October 03, 2007
Chris Johnson
Here's a fun piece of news: George Takei, legendary Stak Trek star and spokesperson for HRC's Coming Out Project, had his universal celebrity affirmed in the most literal way yesteray when an International Astronomical Union (IAU) committee voted to name an asteroid after him. Located between Mars and Jupiter, the asteroid formerly known as 1994 GT9 will now be called 7307 Takei in honor of Takei's work with the Human Rights Campaign and the Japanese American Citizens League. A few miles closer to home, Takei was also recognized at the San Francisco Gala Dinner in July when his Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy presented him with HRC's 2007 Equality Award (pictured).
Although about 14,000 asteroid names have been approved by the IAU's Committee on Small Body Nomenclature (out of about 400,000 known asteroids), Takei snags the prize for being the first openly-gay person to have an asteroid named after him.
How about that for a superlative?
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