Fridae

Better known as Star Trek's Mr Sulu, Japanese-American actor George Takei married his longtime partner and business manager Brad Altman on Sunday in a multicultural ceremony at the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles with 200 guests in attendance.

Takei, 71, and Altman, 54, were the first couple to receive a marriage license in West Hollywood when California began issuing them to gay couples on June 17, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation noted.

The couple, who have been together for 21 years, exchanged vows written by themselves at a ceremony that featured a Buddhist priest, Native American wedding bands, a Japanese Koto harp and a bagpipe procession.

"I vow to care for you as you've cared for me... and to love you as my husband and the only man in my life," Takei said.

According to media reports, Walter Koenig, who played navigator Pavel Chekov in the original Star Trek cast, and Nichelle Nichols, who portrayed communications officer Lieutenant Uhura, served as "best man" and "best lady."

Takei was quoted as saying that he and Altman chose to make their wedding public as they have been outspoken gay-rights advocates for years and for the sake of democracy.

"We have a relationship that's been stronger and longer-lived than some of our straight friends, and yet we were not equal," Takei told The Associated Press before the ceremony. "What this does is give us that dignity; (it's) being part of the American system and being whole. We're making the American system whole as well, as America is becoming more equal."

This is the second celebrity wedding in California after comedian and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres and Australian actress Portia de Rossi, married on August 16 after California became the second US state after Massachusetts to permit gay marriage in June this year.

As Americans head to the polls on Nov 4 to vote for Republican candidate John McCain or Democratic candidate Barack Obama for president, Californians voters will also decide whether to amend the state constitution to limit marriage to unions between men and women and thereby reverse the state's recent Supreme Court decision alongside other issues.