Challenge: Chris Sevier, who wants to marry his laptop, has claimed he should be allowed the same rights as same-sex couples.
An army veteran has challenged a court decision denying him the right to marry his laptop in a bizarre case that loosely resembles the plot of Oscar-winning film Her.
Chris Sevier has filed a motion to the 10th US Circuit Court of Appeal arguing that if same-sex couples are allowed to wed, he should be able to tie the knot with his Macbook.
The amateur model claims computers are his ‘preferred sexual object’ and enjoys sex with the devices more than with ‘real women’.
He tried to marry the device, which he says is laden with porn, but the licence was rejected by Utah officials on the grounds of ‘sexual orientation’.
The case bears similarities to Her, a Spike Jonze film in which the protagonist, played by Joaquin Phoenix, falls in love with his operating system (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Jonze picked up the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay.
In Sevier’s motion, which is 50 pages long, Mr Sevier states: ‘They discriminated against me when they rejected my request to marry my computer.
‘I approached the Utah clerk to have a marriage licence issued for me and my machine-spouse.
‘The clerk denied my request for a marriage licence … my object of affection was outside the scope of the narrow definition.
‘If gays have the right to “marry their object of sexual desire, even if they lack corresponding sexual parts, then I should have the right to marry my preferred sexual object,’ he added.
The motion continues: ‘The true question presented here is whether traditional marriage is a relationship that is stand alone and unequal to all other forms of sexual and spiritual unions.
‘The Constitutionality of the law in dispute narrowly defines marriage between one man and one women, not one man and one man, one woman and one woman, one man and one machine, one man and one animal.’
To strengthen the claim, Mr Sevier cites legal precedents from around the world – including a case where a woman married a dolphin and a Chinese man wed a cardboard cutout of himself.
The courts in the US found his argument was not persuasive enough, and ruled against him.
A judge said it was ‘removed from reality’ and had ‘no place’ in an ongoing lawsuit, which is challenging the premise of same-sex marriage legislation.
Last year Mr Sevier sued Apple claiming the tech giant should have blocked him from accessing porn when he, apparently by accident, typed ‘F***book.com instead of Facebook into Google.
Sevier went on in the complaint to allege ‘unfair competition’ between the porn stars and his wife, brought about by his use of the Apple product, and thus ‘interference of the marital contract.’
Mr Sevier has previously tried to sue TV network A&E for firing Duck Dynasty’s Phil Robertson in the because of alleged homophobic comments.
