Jacob Rudolph, the New Jersey high
school senior who came out during a class awards ceremony, on Tuesday
met his idol George Takei.
In accepting an award for “Class
Actor” in front of 300 of his fellow classmates, Rudolph announced
that he's LGBT.
“I would like to thank everyone for
voting me Class Actor,” Rudolph said. “Sure, I've been in a few
plays and musicals, but more importantly I've been acting every
single day of my life.”
“You see, I've been acting as someone
I'm not. Most of you see me acting every day, you see me acting the
part of “straight Jacob,” but I'm actually an LGBT teen –
lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender.”
Rudolph's classmates greeted his
announcement with a standing ovation.
In an appearance on Anderson Live!
Rudolph told host Anderson Cooper that he shared his coming out video
with Takei, who in turn posted it on his Facebook page.
Cooper then surprised Rudolph by
bringing Takei on the show.
“I was bursting,” Takei, who is
openly gay, said of Rudolph's coming out. “I thought it was such a
fantastic statement. You are pulling at that wagon of equality with
the rest of us. So, thank you very much for that.” (The video is
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