Florida man demonstrates absurdity of anti-gay marriage laws

Performance artist, Brian Feldman has had enough, and he’s taking a stand. Citing a recently passed Florida law defining marriage as an institution shared only between a man and a woman as “absurd,” he’s decided to demonstrate the law’s absurdity in a the best way he can:

By marrying a perfect stranger.

According to an article recently published by Edge.com, Feldman advertised on Facebook that he would be available at the County Clerk’s office on February 8th, ready to marry any woman who’d be interested.

That’s it … any woman.

See, Florida, along with the twenty-nine other states that have enacted discriminatory marriage laws, seem to have overlooked quite a few points regarding the so-called sanctity of marriage in their haste to deny gays and lesbians their human right to marry:

• Under current marital law, any male can marry any female anywhere, anytime as long as they meet legal age requirements.
• There are no constraints on divorce at all, which means folks like Britney Spears, as disrespectful to the spirit of marriage as she was, acted in a perfectly legal and acceptable fashion under current law!

In the face of these broad terms used to define the “sanctified” institution of heterosexual marriage, placing ridiculous limitations on same-sex marriage, and/or outlawing it altogether does seem rather … well … absurd.

Feldman told local media that “I wasn’t expecting anyone to be here… so I was delighted to find three willing women ready to go.” Of the three, he chose Hannah Miller. His method was simple: he spun a bottle of Aquafina water, newly purchased from a vending machine, and it pointed at her. “I can’t think of a more absurd way to do this, considering that this is, in essence, to protest an absurd amendment in the Florida constitution,” Feldman told the three women just before spinning his bottle of water.

A Feb. 8 Orlando Sentinel article said that Feldman borrowed the license fee of $94 from a friend. The wedding is slated as close to St. Valentine’s Day as they could manage–Feb. 12, a Friday. The article said that Miller’s boyfriend knew all about her impending nuptials with Feldman; it didn’t see to be a problem for him.

Wrote Orlando Sentinel correspondent Elizabeth Maupin, “I’m curious whether the people who claim that gay marriages harm the institution of marriage will show up to protest this one. We’ll see.”