{"id":129,"date":"2008-09-15T09:27:40","date_gmt":"2008-09-15T15:27:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/?p=129"},"modified":"2008-09-15T09:27:40","modified_gmt":"2008-09-15T15:27:40","slug":"takei-wedding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/2008\/09\/15\/takei-wedding\/","title":{"rendered":"Takei Wedding!"},"content":{"rendered":"

See pictures of George Takei when he was here in Chicago in our gallery<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

George Takei and Brad Altman reach the final frontier, marrying after
\n21 years together<\/p>\n

By SANDY COHEN<\/p>\n

LOS ANGELES (AP) — George Takei and his longtime partner, Brad Altman,
\nhave agreed to live long and prosper together.<\/p>\n

Takei, 71, and Altman, 54, were married Sunday in a multicultural
\nceremony at the Japanese American National Museum that featured a
\nBuddhist priest, Native American wedding bands, a Japanese Koto harp and
\na bagpipe procession.<\/p>\n

The couple, both clad in white dinner jackets with black pants, made a
\ngrand entrance to the tune of “One Singular Sensation” from the Broadway
\nmusical “A Chorus Line.” They stepped into a circle of yellow roses and
\nlilies, where they shared a traditional Japanese tea ceremony and were
\nwed by a Buddhist priest.<\/p>\n

The couple, who have been together for 21 years, wrote their own vows.<\/p>\n

Altman said that he had called Takei many things during their two
\ndecades together \u2014 “life partner, significant other” \u2014 but that
\ntheir marriage represented “a dream come true for me.”<\/p>\n

“I can add ‘my husband’ to the list of things I call you,” he said.<\/p>\n

Takei called his longtime partner an “organized, detail-obsessed,
\npunctuality-driven control freak.”<\/p>\n

“I’m easygoing with details, so we’re a good fit,” he said in the
\ntrademark baritone recognizable to all “Star Trek” and Howard Stern
\nfans.<\/p>\n

“I vow to care for you as you’ve cared for me … and to love you as my
\nhusband and the only man in my life,” Takei said as he held Altman’s
\nhands.<\/p>\n

The priest then pronounced them “spouses for life.” A bagpiper played
\nas the newlyweds walked out, followed by friends, family and a few
\nmembers of the press.<\/p>\n

Takei said he and Altman chose to make their wedding public \u2014 and
\nhave been outspoken gay-rights advocates for years \u2014 for the sake of
\ndemocracy.<\/p>\n

“We have a relationship that’s been stronger and longer-lived than some
\nof our straight friends, and yet we were not equal,” Takei told The
\nAssociated Press before the ceremony. “What this does is give us that
\ndignity; (it’s) being part of the American system and being whole. We’re
\nmaking the American system whole as well, as America is becoming more
\nequal.”<\/p>\n

Such activism is nothing new for Takei. He participated in the civil
\nrights movement, served as a Democratic delegate in 1972 and fought for
\nredress for those \u2014 like his own family \u2014 who were forced into
\ninternment camps after World War II.<\/p>\n

“I grew up determined not to be marginalized,” he said. “That served as
\nan incentive for me to be proactive.”<\/p>\n

He and Altman were among the first couples to receive a marriage
\nlicense in West Hollywood when the state began granting licenses to gay
\ncouples on June 17.<\/p>\n

“A quarter century ago, when I first met Brad, (marriage) was the
\nfarthest thing from our imagination,” Takei said. “But what seemed
\nimpossible at one time becomes, over the passage of time, more and more
\n‘what if’ and ‘why not.’ We have to participate in moving society along
\nto be a better democracy.”<\/p>\n

Wedding guests included “Star Trek” stars Walter Koenig and Nichelle
\nNichols, who served as best man and best lady, Hollywood executives,
\nlocal and national government officials and the couple’s relatives from
\naround the world.<\/p>\n

Keeping with the multicultural theme, guests dined on Asian\/Baja
\nCalifornian fusion cuisine and took home Japanese tea-ceremony treats in
\nboxes printed with the phrase: “May sweet equality live long and
\nprosper.”<\/p>\n

The “Star Trek” star and his manager plan to honeymoon in Argentina and
\nPeru.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

See pictures of George Takei when he was here in Chicago in our gallery George<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-asian-news","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130,"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129\/revisions\/130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/afchicago.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}