HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — George Takei plans to marry his longtime partner Brad Altman.
Takei and Altman have been together for 21 years.
The 71-year-old actor, who starred as Sulu on “Star Trek,” made the announcement on his Web site.
The news comes on the heels of last week’s state high court ruling which struck down California’s laws against gay marriage.
California’s Supreme Court ruled that people have a fundamental “right to marry” the partner of their choosing, thus making the previous ban on gay marriage unconstitutional.
Elle DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi also announced their intentions to marry last week following the ruling.
“We are overjoyed! At long last, the barrier to full marriage rights for same-sex couples has been torn down,” wrote Takei.
“Brad and I have shared our lives together for over 21 years,” he continued. “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.”
Takei, who first announced that he was gay in 2005, has become somewhat of a cult favorite on the “Howard Stern Show.” The actor, who is still working out the details of when and where the wedding will take place, says he believes the opposition to same-sex marriages will eventually be washed away in time.
“Marriage equality took a long time, but, like fine wine, its bouquet is simply exquisite,” he wrote.
