Actor George Takei has praised
President Barack Obama for including gay marriage in his inaugural
speech.
Obama cited Stonewall, the birthplace
of the gay rights movement, and stated that “if we are truly
created equal, then surely the love we commit to one another must be
equal as well.”
Takei lauded the historic mention
during an appearance on MSNBC's The Last Word.
“Those words had never been uttered
by a President of the United States in an inaugural speech and after
he said that, they cut to a shot of the mass of people gathered there
on the mall from the Capitol to the Washington Monument,” Takei
told host Lawrence O'Donnell. “And it looked like it was
shimmering, all waving the flag. This was my America today. But the
president said, 'Our journey is not finished until ...'”
“And I thought of just four years ago
when President Obama was first elected. It was a bittersweet
election for us. For the first time we had an African-American
president. But in that same election in California, Proposition 8
was passed. It was a very, very bitter defeat there. Marriage
equality was wiped out from California but this May that's going up
to the United States Supreme Court together with the challenge to
DOMA – the Defense of Marriage Act. We have come an incredibly
long distance in just four years. We are so near to getting marriage
equality and that's what this inaugural speech stated.”
(Watch
the entire segment at MSNBC.)