Last night on The Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert sat down with Dan Savage, syndicated sex columnist and founder of the It Gets Better Project, who was recently profiled by Mark Oppenheimer in the New York Times Magazine. In the article, the columnist argued that monogamy is not a “requirement” for a happy marriage. Why? Because “we’re so bad at it,” Savage told Colbert.
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He pointed out that monogamy only becomes the “defining characteristic” of marriage when same-sex couples want to marry. Colbert protested that a non-monogamous relationship is nothing more than a “joint checking account.” The question is whether infidelity should be a “relationship-ending event,” or something that couples should “be able to get past.”
Savage said that it is hypocritical for straight married couples to stress monogamy to gay couples: “There’s no logical case that can be made to exclude gay couples (monogamous or not) from an institution that doesn’t exclude straight couples (monogamous or not).” As for the moment that left Colbert comeback-free? You’ll just have to watch the video. —With reporting by Erica Ho