Star Trek star talks about upcoming marriage on US television

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a pink background.

Celebrity gay couple George Takei and partner Brad Altman appeared on CBS’ The Early Show this morning to speak out for marriage equality.

The couple plans to acquire their marriage license on Tuesday, but will hold off on their wedding ceremony until September.

“Tomorrow is the big day when we get our license at long last,” Takei said in an interview with The Early Show. As for the wedding itself, Takei said he and Altman want to “give ourselves some months to go through the delicious anguish of planning for it.”

George Takei, famously known for his role as ‘Mr. Sulu’ on Star Trek, has been with Altman for 21 years. In an interview with The Early Show on Monday, Altman said he proposed to Takei in an impromptu moment when news broke that the California Supreme Court had overturned the ban on same-sex marriage. “George was watching TV and the news flash came on and I dropped to my knees and I said ‘George, will you marry me?’”

Takei’s immediate response was not a “yes,” but rather, “Darn it, you beat me to it!”

Asked why it is important for them to have their relationship recognized as a legal marriage, Takei said, “Because it is a marriage. You know, they can find other names for it, but separate but equal just doesn’t cut it.”

“I don’t want to be domestically partnered to George Takei, I want to be married to George Takei,” Altman said. “And beginning today in California, I can legally marry George.Takei. I’m the happiest guy in California today because I get to marry George.”

“Well, I’m the second happiest man,” Takei said. “It’s about love, you know. But it’s the climate we’re going into that makes it political. But for us, it’s love… and we get to make it a marriage.”

In the couple’s official announcement of their wedding plans on Takei’s web site last month, the Star Trek star said that his heritage as a Japanese American has made him “keenly mindful of the subtle and not so subtle discrimination that the law can impose. During World War II, I grew up imprisoned behind the barbed wire fences of U.S. internment camps.”

“Now, with the passage of time, we look back and see it as a shameful chapter of American history,” Takei said of that time period. “With time, I know the opposition to same sex marriage, too, will be seen as an antique and discreditable part of our history.”


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