Eight years ago today, I found myself at a wedding at Emory University, having just offered my congratulations to the happy couple, when I overheard the mellifluous tones of George Takei saying to the bride’s brother, “You have to understand… this is normal.”
For years, I’ve marveled at the sort of life I lead where I find myself being told what’s normal by Mr. Sulu.
But as I think about it today, I begin to realize some of what he was saying, and what he was hoping for.
Here he was, watching some of his friends getting married– and he couldn’t get married to the person he loved, the person he’d been with for fourteen years. It was four years before he went seriously public about being gay, but most people who knew him knew his status.
And getting married to the person you love was simply the normal thing to do.
It would take another seven years before he could legally get married to Brad Altman. And then his marriage was declared illegal by California’s Prop 8.
So today, eight years later, the California Supreme Court ruled that no one else could get a homosexual marriage in California. And yet, George’s marriage, and the other 18,000 marriages are still allowed to stand.
Which, sadly, is a legal status about as far from normal as you can get.
All George wants is for him, his friends, family, heck, everyone, to enjoy a normal happy life. Why are so many people trying to prevent him and his friends from having it?