While some know Takei as Sulu, and some know him as a LGBT rights activist, what I most admire about Takei is his leadership in public transit issues in Los Angeles, a challenging city in which to advocate transit due to historic expansion, relatively low density and a FUBAR car culture.  But LA has received high marks for its limited but focused rail services, and Takei’s was the deciding vote to get the Metro built there if I recall my history correctly. 

To the groom and the groom, congratulations.

If anybody in our community deserves to have a big, happy wedding day, it is George Takei.  Not only has he enriched peoples lives by being Sulu, he’s done so by just being a fucking awesome human being and a great voice for us.  I’ve had the pleasure of meeting him on the street, he was being accosted by rabid fans, but handled it with the sort of grace and humility that you wish all celebrities possessed.

Thank you for a great last line (I agree with the rest, but the last line… thanks).

Why would Takei want to be married by a cretin anyway?

If a few losers want to stop collecting fees until they’re removed from office by superiors or voters, that’s fine with me. (This will, of course, most likely lead to a decline in the number of het marriages, but what the hey.)

I’m happy to say my new home, Santa Cruz, announced they were taking reservations for the first 2 days once the court order goes into effect and they can start marrying same sex couples, so that the peope who have been waiting for so long can be scheduled with no unnecessary delay.

As with those pharmacists whose morbid prudishness interferes with their ability to do their jobs, Ms. Barnett should find another line of work.

As a lifelong Star Trek fan I send my warmest wishes of congratulations to George Takei (Sulu) and to his partner Brad Altman.

Bigots be damned!

Well, crap.  Kern county is the one I was born in.  Just last week I was saying such nice things about them because of how quickly they were able to get me a copy of my birth certificate.  Admittedly, it probably wasn’t anyone in the circuit clerk’s office who was so helpful to me, but still.

George and Brad will be OK - People reported they had already found a Buddhist minister to officiate.

But yeah - chalk me up as another person who thinks that if your job conflicts with your beliefs to the point where you can’t perform your duties, maybe you are in the wrong line of work.

Ann Barnett plans to stop performing ceremonies for all couples in Kern County as of June 14. She will issue the new gender-neutral marriage licenses as required by law on June 17, but refuses to preside over any ceremony because of space and staff constraints, she said in a statement.

Freedom of Information Act - how does Ann Barnett spend her time, and can her job be disestablished in favour of someone more efficient?

While I respect Mr. Sulu, when it comes to TV characters fighting for LGBT rights, he’s no Zelda Gilroy:

http://dist23.casen.govoffice.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheila_Kuehl

Unfortunately, Sheila is being termed out this year. Hopefully she can continue her service somehow.

So Ms. Barnett lacks the time to… do her job? I wish her good luck in her future endeavors.

Everybody knows that gay weddings take much more time and space than straight weddings. /sarcasm

Seriously. What an idiot.  Do your damn job or resign. I hope she receives disciplinary action.

Don’t know how it is in this new Homeland, but back when I used to live in the United States things were simple.  You got hired to do a job. you refused. you got fired.

Love the title and it really fits….small minds should not be bothered with.

Also, considering the fact that Takei plays one effective helmsman of a Federation Starship….Ann Barnett may want to keep a lookout for a certain starship warping over to pay her a special visit….

If limited time and resources are the issue shouldn’t it be first come first serve? I mean you never hear people say… “there’s only 50 spots left available so we’re only going to allow the white people in.”

paul, you may have finally hit on why gay marriages are a threat to heterosexual ones: idiots who refuse to perform ANY marriages if it means having to treat gay & straight couples equally.

My understand is that clerks like this nutjub can’t legally refuse to issue marriage licenses, but they can refuse to perform any wedding ceremonies.  Who wants to have the county clerk, particularly some nutjob county clerk, perform their marrage ceremony, anyway?

George Takei! <3 I’m so excited and happy that he’s getting married.

I guess this is the flip side of people who won’t perform any weddings if they can’t perform gay weddings: it’s as reasonable a tactic when the other side does it. It doesn’t sound like she’s doing her job, though.

In the article, they quoted a Unitarian Universalist minister who’s getting a group together that will wait outside the courthouse and perform marriages for any couple who wants one.  Which only reinforces our belief that we were right to be married by Unitarians instead of the Catholic Church.

And as Dark Avenger mentions, in California you can have a friend appointed Deputy County Commissioner for a Day and have them do your wedding ceremony.  It costs $35 and they need to be sworn in by the Thursday before.  (At least, LA County does their swearing-in on Thursdays—other counties may choose a different day of the week.)  Also, California accepts the Universal Life Church as a valid ceremony-performing religion, so you can also have a friend sign up online.  Just remember that you need a witness to sign the license as well.

I had a run-in with Mr. Takei once. I was eating at a fabulous Peruvian restaurant in LA, when I suddenly had to pee with the intensity that you only get from being 7 months pregnant. Of course, said restaurant, being tiny but fabulous, had no bathroom. So I literally run out of the restaurant (looking probably crazy, what with being 7 months pregnant with twins and in really ridiculous wedges) and who do I run straight into? George Takei, of all the people in the universe. And of course, I had to pee soooooo bad I couldn’t even get words out other than “bathroom?” and he pointed to a book store 2 doors down. Then he asked if I needed help, but I was already waddle-running.

I came back as quick as I could, but of course he was gone by then. Really nice guy though.

Mnemosyne—I hadn’t heard about that, what a great idea about having ordained people just go and hang out in front of the place where couples get their licenses.

In San Francisco, they’re hiring extra staff and extending hours from 9-5 to 8-8pm.  They expect 500 couples a day for, well, months.  It’s super exciting around here lately!