Editor’s Note: At the time of this publishing, Newt has just been declared the winner of the South Carolina primary. – amanda
By Maria Padhila
Thursday, a woman made an announcement that had all kinds of people on the Internets and in conversation buzzing about polyamory.
Here’s what it was: A friend who is a lesbian, polyamorous woman is getting married. To a man.
It’s not for the health insurance. They just want to get married. She made a typically funny, perceptive, self-deprecating comment about her plight on Facebook, and one of the reassuring comments in a long chain said it all:
“Marriage is ever-evolving. Ask any Republican.”
Her response: “Let’s tell the government: Keep your monogamy out of my marriage!”
My friend’s engagement almost overshadowed the news about Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich: his second wife, Marianne, gave an interview on ABC’s Nightline detailing how, when he had told her about the affair he was having with a young woman, he asked if they could stay married yet see other people. “Callista doesn’t care,” he said about his lover.
His wife did. That isn’t how she defines a marriage, so she said no.
The next day, he gave a talk to a Republican women’s group on “The Demise of American Culture.”
Let’s just say this right up front, so I won’t have to keep repeating it as things get weirder and weirder: I am not making this stuff up.
The request was immediately labeled as Newt Gingrich asking for an “open marriage,” and so it has continued for the past few days. Some writers even began referring to him as “Newt ‘open marriage’ Gingrich,” probably to up their chances on the search engines. (Which might happen here, too, but that’s not my intention.) By evening, bloggers and media were posting frantically about open marriage, non-monogamy, “monogamish,” swinging and polyamory. Sites were digging around for anything they’d done in the past few years on any of these topics, creating updates and links.