Coming to a Town Near You: Android Nuptials!

Mmmmm...sweet robot lovin'

 
This hilarious piece of info was sent to me from a friend in the U.S.

Apparently some fear-mongering "afraid of the gays" right-wing loony guy named Robert Broadus, a Republican candidate for U.S. Congress, has "warned" the Maryland state Assembly that if it passes a marriage equality law it will lead to android weddings.  (Maryland looks to very soon have marriage equality; the state Senate has already passed the bill and the state House will vote on it soon.)

Okay, seriously, this is just desperately insane.  I literally laughed out loud when I read about this.  It's beyond logic.  What on earth are these people smoking that makes them so loopy?!  Whatever it is it must be expensive stuff, because it obviously works really well.

Here's a peek inside Broadus' scary mind with this quote:

"If you pass this bill you will set the groundwork that one day, when artificial intelligence is that advanced, you will be considering whether people will marry their androids. Anyone who’s watched Star Trek, you’ve seen the character Data …He was able to generate a tear because he could feel emotion...If you say that any two people who love each other can get married, then you set that precedent."

What??  It doesn't even make any sense.  Sounds to me like he watched Bicentennial Man and he's been having nightmares about it ever since.  Or maybe he recently watched A.I. and he's become obsessed with Jude Law as the gigolo android character, Gigolo Joe.  Apparently he has a thing for Star Trek's Data, too.  Hmmmm, perhaps Mr. Broadus is just into male androids; maybe he's conflicted over his own homorobosexual feelings for robot dudes.

I think this guy might be genuinely nuts.  In January he went on a different rant against marriage equality, fixating on male-male sex and blaming same-sex marriage for the breakup of his own failed marriage.  He and his wife (poor woman) recently divorced.  I think I see why.  The guy's a wacko!  Either that or his wife finally got sick of hearing him obsess over hot male robots.

We've heard this slippery-slope sky-is-falling garbage before, and now it's getting more and more desperate because they know they're losing the battle.  It's actually pretty comical.

Equality is coming and it's here to stay.  Deal with it robo-Robert Broadus.

Philippine Anti-Discrimination Bill: Necessary and Long Overdue

This post is partially in response to the following comment posted by ''Gary45.''  Since I was already planning to write about the anti-discrimination bill, I'll use this comment as my starting point:

"You said: "Gay rights are non-existent in the Philippines".  Really?  Are gays not Filipino citizens?  Our Constitution already guarantees respect for human rights (section 11), the rights of workers (section 18), equal access to public services (section 26), equal employment opportunities for all (section 3 article XII), and even against threats on libel, slander and sexual harassment in the Penal Code.  Merit is the basis for employment.  Education, work record, experience, performance.  If a gay is fired for wearing too much lipstick he/she (?) can make a complaint to DOLE or DOJ.  New laws and more laws aren't necessary when we already have laws for this and that, regardless of the implications to religious liberty. ..."

Excellent comment and excellent point.  Your insensitivity on the matter, however, is disappointing.  It's unfortunate that you refer to gay men as "he/she."  It is also highly unlikely that a gay man would be fired for wearing lipstick since gay men don't wear lipstick.  Some male-to-female transgenders do, however, so perhaps they are the ones to whom you are referring.

The proposed Anti-Discrimination Bill pending in Philippine Congress (House Bill 1483), is an extremely important piece of legislation.  At first glance, the points raised in the above comment may make it seem that such a bill is unnecessary.  In a perfect world that may be true, but the last time I checked Earth isn't perfect and neither is humanity, which is why the majority of democratic countries today have some form of anti-discrimination law protecting their LGBT citizens.

Anti-Discrimination = the Death of Free Speech / Freedom of Religion?

The very important comment left in the previous post, "We accept you...as long as you never find fulfillment", reads as such:

"I think it is a big question mark for you to say gay marriage would not impact on religious freedom.  I have read alot of articles about that exact thing happening in other countries with lawsuits etcetera.  I did even read about your country where a pastor has been arrested for saying homosexuality is a sin and he is in prison.  That doesn't sound like democracy and a free country to me. ...You cannot deny that this issue has negative implications for Christian speech.  That is why I am skeptical about it all.  Not because I am anti-gay but becuase [sic] I fear for the end of free speech and religious freedom."

Given the nature of the comment, and my inability to answer it effectively in the limited space provided for comment replies, I decided to address it here in it's own post.  It's quite important and worth taking a close look at.

First off, I absolutely understand your point and I agree that freedom of speech and of religion must be protected.  This is not negotiable.  These freedoms are firmly enshrined in democratic constitutions, including the constitutions of both Norway and the Philippines.  I must correct you, though, on the pastor to whom you refer.

"We accept you...as long as you never find fulfillment"

I'm not a Catholic.  Like the majority of Scandinavians I'm a Protestant, a Lutheran to be exact.  The Evangelical Lutheran Church tends to be quite liberal compared to the Catholic Church.

(A warning:  if you're über-conservative you may not want to read the next two paragraphs unless you have your heart medication nearby.)

In the Lutheran Church we have female priests and bishops.  Yes, women are just as good as men.  We also have openly gay and lesbian priests and bishops.  What's more, we allow our priests to get married (both the straight ones and the gay ones); we don't get worked up over divorce; we think condoms are cool; and we don't have a sanctimonious tantrum if two people of the same sex want to get married.  This is evident by the picture above from a recent wedding in Oslo, Norway, where two men were married (gasp!) by a female priest (double gasp!) inside a church (asthmatic gasp!).

One of our bishops recently attended the opening of a Gay Pride Festival in one of Norway's biggest cities and delivered the closing speech as well, saying "The LGBT community has fought a hard fight the last 60 years.  At the core is the fact that the love between two people of the same sex is nothing to be ashamed of."  As you can see, homosexuality is not a "crisis issue" in Norwegian society or in Northern European societies as a whole, or in the Lutheran Church.  The popular governor of Norway's Vestfold county, for example, is openly gay and married to a Lutheran priest.  I'm no fan of intimacy between church and state (pun intended), but in the case of the priest and the governor I'll make an exception. ;)