George Takei: All Humans Are Created Equal

"Equality granted to the LGBT community is in that American tradition of expanding equality to more and more people," says actor and social activist George Takei. Anyone who claims same-sex marriage is un-American fails to recognize the historical precedent for granting freedoms to the oppressed and disenfranchised. The idea that "all men are created equal" becomes truer and truer as this country continues to develop and grow.

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Transcript - Marriage is a union between two people who love each other, who are committed to each other, who care for each other as the phrase goes till death do us part. The opponents of the equality for the LGBT people want to define it strictly as man and woman. The interesting thing is that those unions end up in divorce. The divorce rate is half the marriages that happen today break up in divorce. That lacks that essential element of a marriage: love that leads to commitment to each other, two people who are committed to each other. And so the Supreme Court recognizing that equality for two people who love each other who may be of the same sex is a major step forward. Again, throughout history we have been expanding equality to more and more people. When the nation was founded the shining ideas were articulated by our forefathers who kept other human beings as slaves. When they said all men are created equal, they meant that literally. Women couldn't vote, couldn't own property, didn't have lights over their own children. So equality granted to the LGBT community now is in that American tradition of expanding equality to more and more people.