David Gould

In a thinly-veiled protest of corporate personhood, a Seattle woman claimed to have married a corporation last week. With about 40 people in tow, the bride, Angela Vogel, managed to file a marriage certificate listing one “Corporate Person” as her groom. She then used a park statue as its proxy in a small, outdoor ceremony.

Vogel, a local activist, was trying to generate support for an ambitious city ordinance that would deny corporations personhood (as well as implement free Internet throughout the city and ban lobbying, among other varied provisions).

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She didn’t even have a chance to change her driver’s license to Mrs. Corporate Person before King County voided the marriage. That ruling came the very next day, on the grounds that both parties must be capable of consent — and “Corporate Person,” as it turns out, is only 1.5 months old. Maybe she should have recruited the support of presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney. His oft-quoted “Corporations are people, my friend” utterance might help change the minds of Washington’s marriage czars.

Strangely, it’s not the first time a Seattle woman has married a non-human for publicity. Last year, an activist calling herself “Babylonia Aivez” staged an elaborate wedding ceremony with a historic Seattle building in protest of neighborhood gentrification.

MORE: Mitt Romney Declares “Corporations Are People”