To boldly go where few gay men have gone before

Star Trek's Mr. Sulu, George Takei, married his longtime partner over the weekend, with best lady Lt. (or whatever her rank is now) Uhura, Nichelle Nichols, and Pavel Chekov, aka Walter Koenig. Yep, another Star Trek wedding. Nothing unusual about that except for one thing -- Sulu's partner is also a man. Another gay marriage and, aside from the Mets bullpen blowing another lead, nothing disastrous happened. The world did not stop spinning. The sun didn't explode. That weird snow cone shaped planet eater from some second season episode of Star Trek did not come to Earth and go all "nom nom nom nom" on us. All was well, unless you worked for Lehman Brothers or Merrill Lynch, but that's another story.

However, there are those to whom this weekend's events spell the end of civilization as we know it (ignoring that civilization as we know it always seems to be evolving anyway), so they can force their views onto others. Hogwash. Why is it anyone's business what two consenting human adults who love each other do? If they want to get married, let them get married. Let them suffer all the joys and sorrows like the rest of us. No need for all the hate. If you don't want gay married couples in your life, you are perfectly free to exclude them from your day to day activities. Just as it is easy to find religious organizations that welcome diversity, it is even easier to find those that are much more traditional. No one is forcing you to play well with others who are different.

Still, even the hating is progress, to an extent. 40 - 50 years ago, the photo below, from Mr. Takei's wedding, of a "negro" woman, a "jap" and two other "white" men would have been blasted for the mixing of races in many parts of the country. And forget about the idea of an aisan and white marrying. Today, not a peep about their different backgrounds, aside from the homosexuality. It just doesn't seem to matter to most people these days. It is no one's business but the happy couple's. Perhaps one day we'll think nothing more than fun party where all had a good time when we hear the term "gay wedding."