Gay Marriage, Fidelity, and Monogamy

Many Christians who support the idea of gay marriage usually do so with certain caveats. One of the most important of those caveats is that gay married couples respect the institution of marriage by remaining monogamous. Monogamy has been used by some gay Christians to counter the opponents of gay marriage who often link the practice to what they believe to be a gay culture defined by sexual promiscuity.

A recent New York Times article reports on a new study that will probably muddy the waters a bit more and give further ammunition to conservatives fighting the culture wars on this front.

As the trial phase of the constitutional battle to overturn the Proposition 8 ban on same-sex marriage concludes in federal court, gay nuptials are portrayed by opponents as an effort to rewrite the traditional rules of matrimony. Quietly, outside of the news media and courtroom spotlight, many gay couples are doing just that, according to groundbreaking new research.

New research at San Francisco State University reveals just how common open relationships are among gay men and lesbians in the Bay Area. The Gay Couples Study has followed 556 male couples for three years — about 50 percent of those surveyed have sex outside their relationships, with the knowledge and approval of their partners.

If this study is accurate, it looks like the opponents of gay marriage may have been right all along about gay culture. Although, as the article suggests, many gays and lesbian couples believe that having multiple partners actually helps strengthen their marriages.