George Takei and longtime partner Brad
Altman, married Sunday in California, reports The Associated
Press.
The couple were married by a Buddhist
priest in the Democracy Forum of the Japanese American Nation Museum
in Los Angeles. The ceremony featured a Japanese Koto harp and a
bagpipe procession.
Takei, 71, and Altman, 54, were the
first couple to receive a gender-neutral marriage license in West
Hollywood, California when gay marriage was made available in the
State on June 17th.
Openly gay actor George Takei is best
know for his role as Mr. Sulu in the original Star Trek
series, and more recently appeared on the hit NBC drama Heroes.
The pair, who exchanged Native American
turquoise and silver wedding bands, met and fell in love twenty-one
years ago.
Altman told USA Today that he
proposed on one knee in the couple's kitchen while Takei was eating a
sandwich, surprising Takei, who believed he would be the proposer.
Star Trek alumni Walter Koenig,
who played Chekov on the series, and Nichelle Nichols, who played
Uhura, performed as best man and best lady to the couple. About 200
guests looked on as the men exchanged vows. At the reception, the
Gay Mens Chorus of Los Angeles performed.
Gay and lesbian couples in California
face the prospect of losing marriage equality in the State should
Proposition 8, the ballot initiative banning gay marriage, pass.
The couple's honeymoon in South America
includes vacationing in Peru and Argentina.