Would you marry your android?
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 ... You laugh, but it's true. If you say that any two people who love each other can get married, then you set that precedent.
So spoke Robert Broadus at yesterday's hearings before the Maryland Senate on legislation to pass a marriage equality bill.
Star Trek's Data (Brent Spiner) and Spot
Data? My beloved Data? Not allowed to get married?
I can live with people not being able to marry horses. I can believe insofar as marriage equality is concerned a potato is not a turnip. I might even be able to find common ground with the woman who testified that marriage is like an orange. But not believing that Data should be able to be married is simply unacceptable.
NOM and its allies have finally gone too far.
Mr Broadus, as everyone knows, Data was legally declared an autonomous individual and is therefore entitled to the fundamental right to marry just as any other citizen of the Federation would be. We are fairly sure that Data never married, but that was his choice, not yours.
Mr. Broadus, you are going to lose this battle. If not now, then soon. And certainly long before Data will wonder about what it means to love and be human in the 24th Century.
Mr. Broadus, Your and your compratriots' testimonies have already managed to sway one Maryland State Senator -- away from your position to that of your opponents' -- on marriage equality. I submit, sir, that this is not logical (but please continue in your efforts).
Mr Broadus, with regard to marriage equality it's time for Maryland, for the United States, and for the entire United Federation of Planets to