Robert Broadus, the head of the
newly-formed group Protect Marriage Maryland, warned Maryland lawmakers
that legalizing gay marriage could pave the way for android nuptials.
Broadus
was among the hundreds who signed up to speak Tuesday at a Senate
committee's public hearing on Senate Majority Leader Rob Garagiola's
gay marriage bill. The hearing lasted nearly 7 hours.
Broadus began his remarks by saying the
bill was “poison” and no amount of tweaking would make it
acceptable.
He added that marriage was based on the
idea that “individuals of the same species can reproduce.”
“This is why … people don't marry
with non-humans,” he said. “But also if you pass this bill you
will set the groundwork that one day when artificial intelligence is
that advanced, we will be considering whether or not people can marry
their androids.” (The video is embedded in the right panel of this
page.)
Broadus' group has been linked to the
extreme anti-gay group MassResistance!
Earlier, Broadus argued that he's OK
with gay people so long as they remain powerless.
“I've known plenty of gay people.
I've hung out with gay people. I've been hit on by gay people,”
Broadus
said in a YouTube clip uploaded before the hearing. “I don't turn
around and punch them. In school, if I saw the gay kid getting
picked on, I stood up for the gay kid and tried to stop it.”
“The problem,” he explained, “is
that they have gained so much power at this point in time.”
After the hearing, Democratic
Senator James Brochin announced he was reconsidering his opposition
to the gay marriage bill.