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.

What I love most about the marriage victory in California is the incredible happiness it is bringing to gay people across the country. This victory justifies our hope that one day GLBT people will be treated equally under the law to non-GLBT people and that one day GLBT kids will never again grow up thinking they are some how weird, defective or sinful for being who they are.

In no way do I think that this is the end of road in the battle for marriage equality in California. The great potential for what some have called the "mother of all marriage battles" will most likely become reality in November. Right-wing and GOP activists from across the country are going to converge on California unleashing a stream of hatred, lies and intimidation tactics to pass a constitutional amendment that would strip away marriage rights from thousands of same-sex couples and families. We cannot let them win.

Read George Takei's gay marriage announcement.