George Takei

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May 16, 2008 Marriage Equality Comes to California By George Takei 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! The California Supreme Court has ruled that all Californians have a fundamental right to marry the person he or she loves. Brad and I have shared our lives together for over 21 years. We've worked in partnership; he manages the business side of my career and I do the performing. We've traveled the world together from Europe to Asia to Australia. We've shared the good times as well as struggled through the bad. He helped me care for my ailing mother who lived with us for the last years of her life. He is my love and I can't imagine life without him. Now, we can have the dignity, as well as all the responsibilities, of marriage. We embrace it all heartily. The California Supreme Court further ruled that our Constitution provides for equal protection for all and that it cannot have marriage for one group and another form - domestic partnership - for another group. No more "separate but equal." No more second-class citizenship. Brad and I are going to be married as full citizens of our state. As a Japanese American, I am 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. Pearl Harbor had been bombed and Japanese Americans were rounded up and incarcerated simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. Fear and war hysteria swept the nation. A Presidential Executive Order directed the internment of Japanese Americans as a matter of national security. Now, with the passage of time, we look back and see it as a shameful chapter of American history. President Gerald Ford rescinded the Executive Order that imprisoned us. President Ronald Reagan formally apologized for the unjust imprisonment. President George H.W. Bush signed the redress payment checks to the survivors. It was a tragic and dark taint on American history. With time, I know the opposition to same sex marriage, too, will be seen as an antique and discreditable part of our history. As U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy remarked on same sex marriage, "Times can blind us to certain truths and later generations can see that laws once thought necessary and proper, in fact, serve only to oppress." For now, Brad and I are enjoying the delicious dilemma of deciding where, when, and how we will be married. Marriage equality took a long time, but, like fine wine, its bouquet is simply exquisite.
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2011
Japan
2010
George Takei Statement on Proposition 8 Andrew Koenig
2008
Majel Barrett Roddenberry George Takei Statement on William Shatner Marriage Equality Comes to California You Gotta Have Friends
2007
George Takei on Casting of John Cho as Sulu
2006
Second Wind George's Statement on the Star Trek Feature Daily Variety Story The Forty-Year Trek Why Howard Stern? January, 2006 The Year of Equus
2005
Tribute to Pat Morita November, 2005 Equality and Justice For All Tribute to Jimmy May, 2005 Catfish, Scholars, and a Geisha Party April, 2005 Two Surprising Gifts March, 2005 Measuring TV Viewers February, 2005 Oscars: the Luckiest of the Best January, 2005 New York, New York
2004
December, 2004 Tsunami of Compassion November, 2004 An Emperor, Abe Lincoln, and Four Presidents October, 2004 Fund-raising with fun raising September, 2004 Life Interrupted August, 2004 Celebrating Three Legends July, 2004 Dense Enrichment June, 2004 Seattle: The Crucible of Imagination May, 2004 High Times Down Under April, 2004 Trekkin' in Japan March, 2004 An Actor's New York February, 2004 They Call Her Osama January, 2004 Caribbean Seatrek
2003
December, 2003 My Arkansas Roots November, 2003 A Month of Glory and Fury October, 2003 Jet Lag Reminiscences September, 2003 Supporters and Whoopee! August, 2003 Beaming Back in Time July, 2003 Hawaii, Chicago, Tulsa and Kiribati June, 2003 A Salute to Liberty May, 2003 Renewal and Nurturing April, 2003 The Human Spirit March, 2003 An Anglophile Angeleno February, 2003 NASA Must Rise Again January, 2003 A Shiny Double Bow
2002
December, 2002 Holiday Reflections November, 2002 "Omiyage" Gifts from Japan October, 2002 Historic Travels September, 2002 Oscar-Winning Movies August, 2002 Summer Visitors July, 2002 Mama's "Pacific Overtures" June, 2002 Fumiko Emily Takei, 1912 - 2002 May, 2002 Flight of Angels April, 2002 Surviving a Texas Storm March, 2002 Hooray for Hollywood; Boo on Secession February, 2002 Sacramento Roots January, 2002 Bearing Witness
2001
December, 2001 A Hundred Million Miracles November, 2001 Serendipitous London October, 2001 The Aftermath September 11, 2001 A Special Message September, 2001 Summertime at the Hollywood Bowl August, 2001 Voice Transporter July, 2001 Two American Monuments June, 2001 Luck Be a Lady May, 2001 A Global Banquet Table April, 2001 Joy and Disappointment March, 2001 Two Guys Named David February, 2001 Wisdom from a Volcano January, 2001 Millennial London
2000
December, 2000 Japan - From the Past to the Cutting Edge November, 2000 Counting My Blessings October, 2000 The Mother of an Actor September, 2000 Hanover Expo 2000 August, 2000 Rockin' in the Northwest July, 2000 Global Interchange June, 2000 Sky High Challenge May, 2000 A Month of Theater April, 2000 Excelsior Passion March, 2000 Alien World Right Below February, 2000 Hawaii Connections January, 2000 A New Beginning
1999
December, 1999 Millennium Musings November, 1999 Power of Ingenuity October, 1999 Back to a Diverse Future September, 1999 Our Human Linkage August, 1999 Equatorial Launch to the Stars July, 1999 Celebration of Diversity