THE MYTH OF GAY PROMISCUITY: Dale v. Maggie
With all respect Maggie, the air of unreality on the issue of gay marriage and promiscuity is coming from conservative opponents of gay marriage, who continually hound gay men about their promiscuity and then deny them the one social and legal institution we have to encourage people to settle down into committed couples.
I addressed the issue of promiscuity days ago when I posted the conclusions of law professor and blogger Eugene Volokh on the subject. Volokh concluded that, yes, there is support for the idea of a greater level of promiscuity among gay men than among straight men (but less promiscuity among gay women). I do not dispute this and have never done so, so I'm not sure what you think is "unreal" about my views on the matter. What I do dispute, and what Volokh disputes, is that the differences are as large as many have supposed and have tried to use for political purposes.
Further, the Blumstein and Schwartz work was published in 1983, before the AIDS crisis had truly settled in and before there was any formal recognition of gay relationships, even as domestic partnerships, much less talk of marriage. As you note, the survey sample is not representative. While Blumstein and Schwartz have good and interesting things to say about similarities in the dynamics of gay and straight relationships, which is what the APA amicus brief cited them for, their conclusions on sex are a bit dated. There has been more reliable work on the subject since then.
Meanwhile, even assuming that gay male couples (let's leave aside lesbian couples, as conservative opponents of gay marriage often seem to do) will be more promiscuous and will not be tempered by the development of a culture of marriage in the gay community, what would be the practical consequence for straight marriages? There are so few of us, as you've pointed out, who will even bother to get married, how do we matter? And the most practical question, one that I've asked twice before: will straight women stop demanding monogamy from their husbands?
posted by maggie at
11:12 AM | Link |
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