“I remember all too well the lack of access to books and media that I needed growing up. First as a child in a barbed-wire prison camp, then as a gay young man in the closet, I felt confused and hungry for understanding about myself and the world around me,” said the “Star Trek” actor, who spent part of his childhood in a Japanese internment camp during World War II.
"Please stand with me in opposing censorship, so that we all can find ourselves — and each other — in books.”
Previous honorary chairs for Banned Books Week, established in 1982, include Ava DuVernay, LeVar Burton and Jason Reynolds.
Takei will share leadership with honorary youth chair Iris Mogul, a first-year student at the University of California, Santa Cruz who has been active for years in anti-banning campaigns.