Android Marriage on the Horizon? We Can Only Hope

So the latest in overheated rhetoric from people freaking out over gay marriage is a fear expressed by anti-gay-marriage activist named Robert Broadus. Mr. Broadus says that if we allow gays to marry, then we could be on the slippery slope to people marrying their androids.

I like Star Trek, too, Mr. Broadus; anyone can tell it from reading all of the science-fiction-related posts on this blog. But Trek is not a documentary of our future. I only point that out because you seem to be unclear on the concept. You did, after all, cite Star Trek: The Next Generation's android Data as an alluring example of what the future could hold.

Ah, well. Gay marriage is an issue that will pass by Mr. Broadus. Even younger evangelicals in the United States are increasingly uninterested in this issue, so the anti-homosexual forces have to get all of the political mileage it can from it before America simply ages out of this point of view.

BTW, the first issue I ever bought of illustrated fantasy magazine Heavy Metal was the issue whose cover is reproduced above. It shows two androids that appear to be in love. Or lust. Whatever. But it does suggest something that should calm Mr. Broadus: Androids are likely to be more interested in other androids than in marrying him or his offspring.