Man Who Once Sued to Marry His Laptop Behind Dangerous Anti-Gay Legislation
Nearly three years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled same-sex couples have the same rights and responsibilities to marriage as different-sex couples, Republican lawmakers in two different states are still battling equality.
Six Republican state lawmakers in South Carolina, along with at least one Republican lawmaker in Wyoming, are pushing legislation to permanently redefine marriage. In this case, they are trying to change the legal definition of the marriages of same-sex couples, from marriage, to “parody marriage.”
The bill’s language, while appearing itself to be a parody of actual legislation, is not – but it is clearly written with anti-gay animus, and an apparent lack of understanding of the laws of the United States.
For example, the bill includes this claim: “marriage between and man and a woman arose out of the nature of things and marriage between a man and a woman is natural, neutral, and noncontroversial, unlike parody forms of marriage.”
The bill also suggests same-sex couples only observe Secular Humanism – a philosophy that advances the belief humans do not need organized religion to act morally and with integrity – as opposed to Christianity, Islam, other fairhs, or no faith at all.
It claims that “all forms of parody marriage and all self-asserted sex-based identity narratives and sexual orientations that fail to check out the human design are part of the religion of Secular Humanism.”
The bill, once falsely making the case that, apparently, all same-sex couples are Secular Humanists, advances that Secular Humanism is a religion, and therefore same-sex marriage, or marriage as it is known, of same-sex couples is unconstitutional. Their biases for that claim? The First Amendment bans the government from favoring one religion over another.
Their real argument, however, is clear: legal recognition of the marriages of same-sex couples, the bill claims, has “created an indefensible legal weapon against nonobservers,” aka, Christians.
The bill’s main sponsor in South Carolina is Republican State Rep. Steven Long, who tells the Post and Courier his legislation is merely about upholding First Amendment separation of church and state.
The Wyoming bill is sponsored by two Republican lawmakers, but is being pushed by a man known to many in the LGBT community.
Chris Sevier has tried in several states to file lawsuits to allow him to marry his laptop. Last July he tried to sue several congressional Democrats for displaying the LGBT Pride flag in their offices. His complaint: being gay is a religion, and Pride flags are symbols of “homosexual denomination.â€
Sevier reportedly is trying to advance his “parody marriage” legislation in all 50 states.
Image by Ted Eytan via Flickr and a CC license