Gay-marriage advocates often argue that marriage will reduce the gay male tendency toward promiscuous sex. I have often suggested that a different and more disturbing effect is more likely. Since many of even the most committed and stable gay relationships are sexually open, there is a danger that gay marriage will help to break the now taken-for-granted connection between marriage and monogamy. For an interesting foreshadowing of this effect, consider the recent piece in Salon by Michael Alvear. Alvear’s take on the Clinton scandal is that straights need to lighten up about marital infidelity and model their marriages on the sexually open relationships so familiar to gays. This is exactly the sort of thing I have suggested we will be seeing plenty of after gay marriage is legalized. But after legalization, instead of someone like Alvear saying that straight marriages ought to follow the example of gay relationships, he’ll be able to say that straight marriages ought to become more like gay marriages. That’s going to make it very tough to communicate the meaning of marital fidelity to a new generation. For details on Alvear’s piece, see the critique by blogger Tom Sylvester.