Ellen DeGeneres' Marriage Announcement

Here's the clip of Ellen Degeneres announcing she’s getting married on her show today. Ellen's partner, Portia de Rossi was in the audience.

Said Ellen: "Yesterday, the California Supreme Court overturned the ban on gay marriage. So I would like to say right now, for the first time, I am announcing that I am getting married...I’m so excited. It’s something that we’ve, of course, wanted to do, and we’ve wanted to be legal, and we’re very very excited."


Actor George Takei announced that he'll be taking advantage of the new California same-sex marriage law and wedding his partner and business manager Brad Altman.

Takei and Altman have been together for over 21 years. In his message, which discusses their relationship as well as his experience as a Japanese American: Takei says:

"As a Japanese American, I am keenly mindful of the subtle and not so subtle discrimination that the law can impose. During World War II, I grew up imprisoned behind the barbed wire fences of U.S. internment camps. Pearl Harbor had been bombed and Japanese Americans were rounded up and incarcerated simply because we happened to look like the people who bombed Pearl Harbor. Fear and war hysteria swept the nation. A Presidential Executive Order directed the internment of Japanese Americans as a matter of national security. Now, with the passage of time, we look back and see it as a shameful chapter of American history...With time, I know the opposition to same sex marriage, too, will be seen as an antique and discreditable part of our history..."

“Our California dream is reality. Brad Altman and I can now marry. We are overjoyed! At long last, the barrier to full marriage rights for same-sex couples has been torn down. We are equal with all citizens of our state!

The California Supreme Court has ruled that all Californians have a fundamental right to marry the person he or she loves. Brad and I have shared our lives together for over 21 years. 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…For now, Brad and I are enjoying the delicious dilemma of deciding where, when, and how we will be married. Marriage equality took a long time, but, like fine wine, its bouquet is simply exquisite.”