George Takei Getting Married

Late last night George Takei (Star Trek’s original Sulu) announced that he and his long-time partner Brad Altman were engaged to be married. The announcement comes just one day after the California Supreme Court ruled that same sex marriages are now legal in California, overturning a previous ban as unconstitutional. Takei talked to TrekMovie about the wedding and more.

The announcement on Takei’s website reads in part:

Our California dream is reality. Brad Altman and I can now marry. We are overjoyed! At long last, the barrier to full marriage rights for same-sex couples has been torn down. We are equal with all citizens of our state!

This issue is particularly close to Takei as he first came out as gay in 2005 to speak out against a veto, by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, of a same-sex marraige law. Takei tells TrekMovie he and Brad are planning on tying the knot “as soon as possible.” The court ruling will go into effect in June and they are currently looking over dates and possible locations. Takei is considering the recently restored St. Vibiana’s Cathedral in downtown Los Angeles. Takei is also already planning on helping with the campaign to fight any November ballot measure to amend the California State Constitution to again ban same sex marriage. Takei states “I would like to think that Californians have changed and now know that we are not the stereotypes, but we are everybody we are your neighbors, your family, your co-workers.” Takei also takes heart in the fact that Gov. Schwarzenegger has backed the Court’s ruling and will not support amending the Constitution. Takei isn’t the only celeb announcing marriage plans following the ruling. During a taping of her show on Friday Ellen DeGeneres announced she and Portia de Rossi will also wed.


Takei with his husband-to-be, Brad Altman

George keeping busy
Besides wedding plans, Takei is still keeping busy. The actor says that for the last week he has been doing voice recordings for an unnamed EA video game. He also recently finished a “last minute” cameo for the Adam Sandler comedy You Don’t Mess with the Zohan. Takei also has a role as a “snooty maître de” in the R rated comedy American Summer from the guys behind American Pie. That film is now at Cannes looking for distribution. Starting later in the month George will be going on a multi-city speaking tour as part of Asian-pacific heritage month. Takei also is slated for some summer conventions, see his site for more info on his appearances.

George doesn’t hate Bill
In the last week William Shatner has been doing a publicity tour and the subject of Trek feuds and George Takei seems to come up a lot (like on Conan O’Brien show or The Howard Stern Show). When asked about the supposed feud Takei did admit he wishes Shatner would learn to pronounce his name correctly, but felt the feud has been overblown, noting

We do not hate each other. How could you work with someone if it was that kind of animosity…we are professionals and did and have done conventions and movies together for years. The hate thing is all part of the media hype.

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Congratulations, George and Brad!

Congrats George and Brad!!!! All the best!!

Congrats and all the best from germany!

Yay!!! what a happy day

Congratulations, George-san and Brad-san! I hope you have a wonderful wedding! Best wishes! Yay! *Claps*

Well, I’m moving out to Californey! Huzzah! Finally… I can actually get married. I’m with ya’ George! Congrats!

Have fun on your honeymoon!

-TOG

Congrats George and Brad!!!

Congrats to them both!

…the adventure continues…

To boldly go where no man has gone before . . . It works for social pioneers, too, and not just space ones. :)

Congrats to them! And may they live long and prosper together!

Good news. Congrats George.

A heartfelt congratulations to George and Brad. Here’s to an out of this world honeymoon!

May you always be together and happy!

Congrats to George! Equality is, after all, at the heart of Star Trek.

Yay! Make believe marriage….. humbug

Congratulations!! :)
Wish ,both, George Takei and Brad Altman the best!!

ps: here is me crossing my fingers that the unnamed EA is about Cpt. Sulu :P

congratulations from San Francisco, George and Brad! I wish you both the best in your journey through life together! :)

Does mom know about this?!

I’m glad for them.

Congratulations on the change to make legal what has been in your hearts all along.

Congrats to George and Brad, i wish you all the best.

In a land not far away enough…

Awesome. Good for them.

Congratulations, George and Brad!

Congrats–What a truly gay day.

Congratulations from Germany to George and Brad! BTW this has been legal over here for quite a while…

Good for them. I cannot imagine what it would be like to be with the person I consider to be my lifemate and not be able to make a marriage commitment if I wanted.

To George and Brad: Congratulations to you both from New York. May your lives together be as happy and fulfilled with adventure as ever before.

-Mike

So to those of you who don’t agree with this marriage…I suppose a heterosexual couple who got married for the wrong reasons (i.e. they don’t really love each other) — say for instance Lyle Lovett and Julia Roberts — is OK in your book, but a homosexual couple who really do love each other deeply can’t get married??

It seems that I would feel better about a same-sex loving marriage than I would feel about a man and woman getting married who don’t really love each other.

And by the way, I am a straight man, married to a woman, and — believe it or not — a registered Rupublican (but a very moderate one at that).

p.s. — not to pick on Lyle and Julia…I’m sure they were great friends when they got married, but the brevity of their marriage proved they didn’t really love eacher that deeply… but I had to pick some example that we all know about, and they were the ones that came to mind.

sorry — I meant Republican

“Rupublican” makes me sound like a ‘red-stater’

Best wishes to you, George and Brad. May you have many happy years together.

Congrats.

Congratulations to you both! I hope you have a wonderful ceremony and an even more wonderful life together after that.

(Surprise your invitees by making your wedding cake a pastel borracho version of the traditional tres leches cake. Everyone will rave, and insist that gays get married more often because we have way better taste.)

George, I saw you in the stage version of Equus here in L.A., and you were marvelous.

Again, congrats!

Congrats!

Congratulations, George and Brad from your friends in Las Vegas! Chuck and Travis

What I meant was… people will insist that they go to gay weddings more often. Ugh. My brain hurtzes.

Congrats Guys. I’m happy for you both.

Congrats! …to you, and to equal rights for all! It’s been too long coming!

Peace & Long Life

Keep fighting the good fight! =)

YEAY!!! I’m SO happy for them. Congrats!

The California decision is a major victory, not just for the gays and lesbians who are directly affected by this, but for equality and personal freedom throughout this country. It saddens me that it there are so many people who are opposed to all people having basic human rights, but at last the state has done the right thing. Hopefully others will follow suit.

And of course, a big congratulations to George and Brad!

From one potato queen to another, congratulations, George! :-)

#30 — Sorry Anthony,

I didn’t mean to pontificate…I just wanted to show that it isn’t only liberals who approve gay marriage. There are many average moderate mainstream (even slightly “right of center”) people who are OK with it also.

Congrats to the happy couple.

A few celebrity marriages like this will make passing and ratifying an anti-gay marriage amendment to the U.S. Constitution a very noisy battle, perhaps even an uphill battle. No offense to Massachusetts but California being a gay marriage state is a much bigger deal.

So now two states have gay marriage, and potentially three pending final appeal of an Iowa ruling. Six more have civil unions and another five have domestic partnerships. That’s 14 in all that are partly or fully supportive of gay unions. A federal anti-gay marriage amendment will no doubt be attempted, but should it survive the Democratically controlled Congress we’re likely to have for years, it requires ratification in three-fourths of the 50 states to take effect. Depending on the proposed language, there would have to be two of those 14 states with a legislature willing to face the chaos of affecting existing unions among their constituents should they vote to ratify.

I am very happy for George and his partner. I’m also very happy with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger supporting the court ruling.

I apologize for my typos in my last message. “fir nabit” is what you get when you try to type “for many” but aren’t paying attention to the keys. :P

George is a nice guy, I hope that he finds the happieness that he’s been looking for.

I had the pleasure of meeting both George and Brad a couple of years ago. Two of the most thoughtful, forward-thinking and (no pun inteded) down-to-earth human beings I’ve ever encountered…congrats to them!

Congratulations to George and Brad!!! May you have many happy years together.

Congrats guys! Heres to a great union and many more happy years together!:-)

Kigs