An Australian senator is so upset with the idea of same-sex marriage becoming legal in his country that he’s said it will lead to marriages with inanimate objects, such as bridges.

The remarks belong to Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz, who has a long history of opposing LGBT rights and who just last week was confronted during a live TV debate about that history.

It seems, however, that instead of backtracking, Abetz is doubling down on his homophobic views. He told BuzzFeed News that same-sex marriage could lead to people marrying the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Following up on Abetz’s previously written claims that equal marriage could lead to people legally marrying inanimate objects, BuzzFeed asked if he meant such inanimate objects as the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

“Why not? Why not?” Abetz asked.

“Look, I would like to think that that is taking the argument to the limit, but the issue is if we are judging this solely on a person’s view of what love is to them, and people [ask] me, ‘how can you judge somebody else’s love?’, then I think you’ve got to accept that love is love and that’s the slogan,” he continued. “Having said that, whilst we very much believe that marriage has something to do with love, the marriage act does not require it…”

And, he says, there’s proof that people want these unconventional marriages.

“There are people that are actually saying they want to marry the Eiffel Tower. There are people that say we want a threesome marriage, and ‘who are you to judge that marriage should only be between two people?’.”

“I think our society would not accept people being able to marry the Eiffel Tower, but if you just limit it to people then there are issues in relation to polyamory.”

In defending his claims, Abetz even brought up Obergefell v. Hodges:

Indeed, that was the, I think very cogent argument of the chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, chief justice Roberts, in his dissenting judgement where he pointed out that once you remove that vital element of it being a man/woman thing, and you just say love is love etc, then basically you open the floodgates to anything.


https://www.thegailygrind.com/2017/08/17/lawmaker-urgently-warning-gay-marriages...

straw man
noun
noun: strawman
1.
an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument.
"her familiar procedure of creating a straw man by exaggerating their approach"
2.
a person regarded as having no substance or integrity.
"a photogenic straw man gets inserted into office and advisers dictate policy"