Man With Bizarre History of Anti-Gay Stunt Lawsuits Is Successfully Pushing Bill to Tax Pornography
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A pornography bill that would force the makers of computers and phones to block all porn unless buyers pay a tax of $20 has been circulating in various forms in states across the country. The bill is being pushed by a particularly notable weirdo named Chris Sevier.
The Daily Beast has been following the work of Sevier for some time because of his bizarre antics attacking gay marriage by attempting to marry a computer. Twice. In 2016, they wrote of his two attempts to draw a line of comparison between gay couples wedding and his love for his 2011 MacBook:
In 2014, former Tennessee lawyer and Christian electronic dance music producer Mark “Chris” Sevier filed a motion in Florida arguing that if same-sex couples “have the right to marry their object of sexual desire… then I should have the right to marry my preferred sexual object,” in this case his “porn-filled Apple computer.”
The motion was dismissed, of course, but Sevier is back again with a new Texas lawsuit demanding that he be granted a 14th Amendment right to wed his laptop.
As the Houston Chronicle reports, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has already asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, arguing that “the right to marry one’s computer is not an interest, objectively, deeply rooted in the nation’s history and tradition.”
Though seemingly flippant, Sevier has enough money or influence to get some of notions taken seriously by legislators. Alabama discussed HB 428 in early April, sponsored by Rep. Jack Williams, R-Vestavia Hills. AL.com reports that the bill demands every internet-connected device filter “block child pornography, obscene material, sexual cyber-harassment and promotions of prostitution,” a notion that sounds good theoretically, but representatives from the ACLU say the law would violate the First Amendment.