Where No Gay Male Celebrity Has Gone Before: "Star Trek"'s George Takei Weds

George Takei and Brad Altman cutting their wedding cake

George Takei, the Star Trek actor who has recently emerged as a leading advocate for same-sex marriage equality, married his partner of 21 years, Brad Altman, in a private ceremony on Sunday at the Democracy Forum of the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles.

Takei, 71, and Altman, 54, exchanged matching rings in a wedding officiated by a Buddhist priest that included koto music and a “san-san-kudo sake” ritual.

Attendees at the 200-guest ceremony included fellow Star Trek alumni Walter Koenig, who acted as best man, and Nichelle Nichols, who served as matron of honor. Leonard Nimoy was also on the guest list, and even William Shatner was reported to have ultimately been invited, despite earlier indications that he wouldn’t be.

As Takei and Altman left the ceremony, Takei said, “May equality live long and prosper!” The couple plan to honeymoon in South America.

On August 16, Ellen DeGeneres married her partner Portia de Rossi in a widely-publicized event, but Sunday’s ceremony between Takei and Altman marks the highest profile American wedding between two men to date.

In a pre-wedding interview with AfterElton.com, Takei emphasized that while the marriage is very much a celebration of his commitment to Altman, the ceremony also had an element of political activism.

“We are mindful of the context in which we are getting married,” Takei said, referring to the May 16 California Supreme Court decision that overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage (though such marriages are still not recognized by the federal government), as well as an initiative that goes before the voters in November that would restore the ban.

“I think the more people get married and the more straight people who get exposed to same-sex relationships, then they start realizing that we are all over and we are making contributions to society,” Takei said. “Then those opponents will then look like they are mean-spirited, taking away something that is beautiful.”

Editorial cartoon by Sean Delonas of New York Post

“I always find it funny when you hear like same-sex marriages are going to destroy traditional marriage,” said Altman, Takei’s partner. “Look at George and me for example. We’ve been together more than 21 years, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad times. We are a well-established couple.”

Takei is most well-known for playing Hikaru Sulu, the helmsman in the original Star Trek television series, as well as a string of subsequent feature films based on that series. His first acting role was dubbing English translations of the Japanese monster movie Rodan in 1957. The actor came out publicly in 2005 and has since seen a major career resurgence, with a role on the NBC series Heroes and a regular gig on radio’s The Howard Stern Show.