Blogs Dec 30, 2010 at 10:46 am

Comments

1
It is so fucking adorable, Dan, that you always start with "I usually don't post my own interviews, but..." every time you post your own interviews.
2
Well, I don't usually. And I may say that every time I do, but that doesn't mean I post every interview I do. It's just when I do...
3
That, and using "I / I'm" seven times in four sentences. So cute!
4
I like the "Chicago Native" bit as well. Good old PBS.
5
Any chance of some links for the "fits" to which you allude?
6
Dan, thank you again from the bottom of my heart for the IGBP and all you do for us and the LGBT community all year long. Muwah! and Happy New Year!
7
@5: Click on "fits."
8
Once again I am reminded: Dan, you are brilliant.
9
Get a twitter, Dan. Seriously. You can have Peter LaBarbera stalk you like he does Joe Jervis.

I'm going to get a bunch of twitter stickers and affix them to your back when you aren't looking.
10
Really great interview. You were very articulate. Glad you didn't bring up stupid Sex At Dawn for once!
11
Excellent, Dan.

Thanks!
12
Best interview yet Dan. Thanks so much.
13
@10 Evolution designed us to gangbang, get over it.
14
Don't apologize, Dan. This is good stuff. He's a surprisingly good interviewer, and you are exceptionally personable and articulate. And right, of course. But it's easy to be right, but hard to make it sound as good as you do. Nothing I'd rather hear than you talk about your mother. Now there was a dame.
15
Great interview, and I wish you WOULD always post all of your clips so I don't have to search them out all over the place.
16
finally got my It Gets Better Project T-shirt, Dan. so comfortable!
17
Oooooo...and as always, I loves me some Dan Savage. Cheers, Dan.
18
Those idiots at Americans for Truth really need to get over the whole doorknob licking thing. I don't think they've ever written an article about you where it isn't mentioned. Though, to their (very little) credit, "Saliva Terrorist" is a ridiculous and funny nickname.

Great interview, Dan.
19
Fantastic...thank you for making this world a better place.
20
Great interview, Dan. You didn't post the one I saw on the news either last night or this morning, so I can vouch for you that I saw one that you didn't post.

Please encourage everyone to click the links given in the "fits" link and write letters supporting their interview. Something has to be done to counteract the wing-nuts letter writing campaign.
21
Nice interview. I don't care if you do post your own interviews. Have a fabulous New Year!
22
When I came out I said "I don't want sex with women, I have no desire to have sex with women and you shouldn't bother trying to change that because it's not going to change" The women in my family tried to tell me I just hadn't found the right woman. My Catholic father, on the other hand, banished me to the wilderness. It was the best thing he could have done. I found real happiness.
23
I especially liked the bit towards the end where you discussed the left/right perceptions of not only homophobia, but also other socially divisive issues. This rationality is exactly why I read your opinions on anything, even when I disagree with you.
I also liked your explanation of why you are harsh on some of those who write to you for advice. It reminded me of some things I wrote to/about you here on the comment threads of some of your anti-pit bull posts.
Happy New Year, Dan. Hope you get recognition someday for your opinions that have nothing to do with sex or gayness. Especially public transportation, the subject where I first saw that you were more than a sex advice columnist who was fun to read, even when the subject matter had absolutely no bearing on my life.
24
Great interview! AS ALWAYS!
25
My browser's being funny, so I can't watch the interview for now, but I got a kick out of the fits. Whoever wrote that better hope that he doesn't have any aneurysms waiting to rupture, because he's killing himself at that rate. Either that or he's wanking at the keyboard.
26
Americans for Truth want their readers to call WTTW and complain about their interview with Dan, but I think we should call and let them know that we support Dan and this wonderful interview.

773-583-5000 (9-5:00 Central Time M-F; hit “0″ and ask for Phil Ponce)
27
I think the religious right's "" buttons are broken. Did anyone else notice how they appear randomly and without meaning in their letter. Their underline function must also be malfunctioning.
28
Where's the link to your speech? I went to WTTW's website but couldn't find it.
29
I forgot to mention in my letter Savage’s admitted “three way” gay sexual romps — he, his “husband” Terry and a male stranger — while Terry and he were co-adoptive “daddies” of “The Kid” (the title of Savage’s book). AFTAH wondered: who babysat “The Kid” during their orgy? Medved said he was unaware of Savage’s advocacy of “nonmonogamy” and his history of viciously maligning Christians.

30
Savage is living proof that nobody hates like hard-core homosexual activists — yet because he is a “gay” activist and Christians are the target of his bile, Savage not only gets a pass from the media but is treated with deference and respect. (While in Chicago, Savage was also the featured speaker at the Chicago Humanist Festival.)

31
In 2003, the “Savage Love” columnist – upset at remarks by then-Sen. Rick Santorum (R-PA) linking homosexuality to other sexual sins — asked his readers to create a malicious definition for “Santorum” [see the "Political Advocacy" Wikipedia section HERE; watch a YouTube where Savage explains it HERE.]. We won’t reprint the winning entry [see this link; WARNING: graphic and disgusting], but suffice it to say that to achieve the desired grossness in his attempt to smear the good senator, Savage ironically but appropriately had to resort to using the by-product of anal sex for his sick “definition.” (That’s why homosexual sodomy was once described as the “Infamous Crime Against Nature,” Dan; the only thing more disgusting than describing its after-effects is actually doing it in the first place.)

32
Nuthin' sez luvin' like Frothy Feces....
33
Only “progressives” and hopelessly biased media would honor a toxic perv like Dan Savage with his seemingly boundless capacity for demonizing pro-family leaders, creatively reaching into the depths of his very, very dirty — and reprobate – mind.

34
Savage is a man so possessed with hatred for religious conservatives that he actually LICKED THE DOORKNOBS of the Iowa campaign office of evangelical presidential contender Gary Bauer in a twisted attempt to give Bauer AIDS. Yep, a real role model for LGBT youth….

35
Savage opines that straight married couples should embrace outside sex (like most gay male couples) and that this would help lower the divorce rate (!). Why didn’t Phil raise any of these extreme opinions in questioning Savage — much less Savage’s routine use of the pejorative term “homophobe” (amidst other polemical cliches like FAGGOT) to belittle traditional people of faith?

36
Savage obviously harbors a serious hatred against Christians
37
Jesus, NOBODY can whine like a Christian. They're persecuted, they're misunderstood, blah, blah, blah....

It was bad enough when they just whined to you one-on-one, or whined over the radio or TV, but now with the internet, they can take their victim complex to a whole new level.

Oh, and "taxpayer funded" WTTW my small white derriere: If it weren't for that old lie, most of them would have absolutely no idea what public broadcasting was.

Whiny victims are bad enough. But lying whiny Christian victims are the absolute worst. Bring back the lions - that will give them something to whine about.

39
You homophobes are so cute when you're mad!
40
@28-36 You need serioous psychiatric help.
41
I love how Peter LaBarbera on his website, "Americans For Truth About Homosexuality", whines about people saying he is obsessed with homosexuality. The man lies awake at night thinking about gay people.
42
More Savage Hate

Wikipedia describes Savage as a hate-filled, vulgar anti-religious homosexual extremist.
43
Excellent, thank you.
44
well , i watched this wanting to hate it. to the shock i'm sure of my many fans , i didn't amazingly enough. it was a very good interview , and you were very articulate. my main problem with you (other than the poo pushing) is the bullying thing. you are never , never ,never going to stop that . no amount of legislation ,or propaganda is going to change that ever. all the whining is gonna do,is create more of it. the only way to deal with a bully is to own the situation , any one with a clue knows that. one of the main problems with todays kids is this single mommy raised mentalitys of these touchy ,feely pay attention to me attention whore kids. for fucks sake toughen up and grow up . you are not the center of the universe kids , and never will be. countless billions of humans have been bullied over the history of man. it does two thing's : it makes you tougher, or run's you off the face of the earth. natural selection is important to man whether you like it or not , and has been co-opted for the so called "greater good" and has resulted in a weaker strain of the species. all this molly coddeling of the weaker strain isn't helping it ,its just making it weaker period. if you want to do them a favor , make them play the sink or swim game. no special protections ever, if you wanna be equal be equal and don't go around demanding special laws and favors. prove your worth through the value of the output from your existence. not through laws forced upon people that will only resent you for the intrusion in their all-ready fucked up ,over regulated existence .
45
@ 29 thru 36: Teh Troll hard fixated droll troll trolls hard...
46
Damn, if the authors of the US Constitution got the easiest moral question there is wrong, what else did they get wrong?—

yeah.

it IS a stupidassed thing to say.........
47
In case you aren't following along, Petey likes to repost his own material all over the internet as rebuttal -- which he has done here in this thread. He's privileged Joe Jervis and Pam Spaulding both with this sort of basic tactic and if you pay attention, he's done it here before.

This is why it's become my own little game to read posts here or at JMG or PHB and catch which are LaBarbera.
48
Great stuff, Dan!
49
" But somehow I farted it for the cameras."

Santorum.

Now available in convenient aerosol......
50
Whenever I hear Christian/Tea Party types complain about the use of tax-dollars (often having no idea what they're talking about), I can hear John Cleese gesticulating as a Gumby.
51
Yes, the "authors of the US Constitution got the easiest moral question there is wrong", but they also knew they were not perfect, and that they could not see the future. That is why they gave us a way of changing the laws, and Constitution. (Did you fail American History?)

Christians claim that the Bible is perfect, and never needs to be changed. (While at the same time ignoring the parts they don't want to follow.)
52
Sam Harris believes that according to the Bible God wants to put homosexuals to death.

does that worry you, Dan?
53
My favorite part on their freakout page? When they asked who was watching the kid while Dan and Terry had their 3-way.

It always kills me how transparently stupid these kinds of attacks are--i.e that someone out there actually convinces his or herself that this is a reasonable argument. I mean c'mon, according to this argument, no adults with children should ever ever have sex of any kind because doing so, obviously, means child neglect! PLEASE.

When was the last time any straight adult couple "confessed" their sexual "crimes" to their own children? Ball gags, hot tubs, threeways, porn, toys, oral sex, spanking, phone sex, or, hey, just good ol' fashioned man-on-top-get-it-overwith-quick sex--No healthy adult ever discusses their sex lives with their children, let alone confess it as though the fact of a particular act implicitly damages them. Newsflash, sexphobes: the vast majority of sex acts are the same damn stuff, nothing's new under the sun, so stop projecting your own fears and repressed desires onto your children, because that actually will damage them.

In fact, I would argue that sexless marriages cause far more psychological harm to growing children than any private dalliances of happy and honest couples.
54
You're pissing off the Jesuscows, so you're doing something right!
55
My husband just happened to flip to Chicago Tonight when this originally aired, and we both stopped what we were doing and just watched the whole interview. We're both already fans of your writing and the IGBP, but this was just a really, really nice interview. (And I usually am not thrilled by Phil Ponce).

Thanks for the amazing things you've done in 2010, Dan. Happy New Year.
56
Please stop dignifying these people by calling them Christians. They are nothing of the sort and we are in no way obligated to pretend their hatred is motivated by any kind of so-called religious belief. What horseshit. They hate because they enjoy hating - the "religion" is merely window dressing they wrap it in. And their leaders pander to them because it lines their greedy pockets.

They are KKKristchens.
59
From the "Truth" About Homosexuality website: Let WTTW know that it is hypocritical and shameful that they were so respectful toward a hate-filled, vulgar anti-religious homosexual extremist like Dan Savage. . . urge the station to balance their in-depth interview with the anti-Christian Savage with an extended interview with a pro-family leader opposed to mainstreaming homosexuality.

People are going to have different reactions to a group that demonizes them -- that claims how they feel and act is wrong and disgusting -- and tries to prevent them from having equality in society. If I was gay, and had grown up with that kind of shit from Christian conservatives, I'm not sure how I'd react, but I suspect I'd have a lot of anger and hatred toward them. To love and/or forgive those who demonize and repress you, or to turn the other cheek, may mean you're a better person, but it's also not an easy thing to do.

Although Dan's "O They Will Know We Are Christians" posts on Slog can, I think, come across as an overly broad condemnation of Christians, I'm sure he understands there are liberal Christians who don't have a problem with homosexuality and who feel that gays & lesbians should have full equality in society. Anti-Christian he's not. Anti-Christian-bigotry he is.

It's so bizarre that these "pro-family" conservative Christians have such an obsession about homosexuality when they should be focused, instead, on straight people who, through things like abuse and cheating, destroy families every day.

60
@26: Thanks, AndyM, that was what I was going to say, too.

Since it was too late to call, I used WTTW's online contact form to send them a note telling them that I support their programming choice in interviewing Dan. I encourage other Sloggers to do the same.

Web form: http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=0,2,4

Other contact info: http://www.wttw.com/main.taf?p=0,1,1
61
Dan, I would like it if you DID link all your interviews! You should maybe consider doing that. We're all hear because we like what you have to say, why would we be against hearing more of it?

I LOVE the fits! Especially the implications you somehow involve your child 'WHO was babysitting during the illicit gay pervy three ways of sodomistic orgy sinning?'. Um, my guess would be a bored fourteen year old girl from down the street, like every other babysitter? They're so convinced gay people can't have normal lives or families.
62
I can swear that I saw this interview weeks ago. And the AFT is just now getting wind of it?

Or am I full of crap? When did this interview first air, Dan?
63
@42: Oh really?
64
Keep posting!
65
Could you post your interviews somewhere? Like, say, one of those little frittered away corners of Slog that you sometimes reserve for extra responses to Savage Love questions and things that you could just link to once and those of us who want to could add the RSS feed to our Google Readers or whatever? I'm always trying to track your appearances down and I fail mostly.
66
They still have their panties in a twist over this? Nearly a month of frothing at the mouth? I guess the "war on Christmas" wasn't as consuming as they thought.

I thought this was great when I first watched it nearly a month ago, and I think it is great now. And, I suppose freedom of opinion allows people to be offended, but I personally don't think it is offensive. I think it is thought provoking, but considering that one's compliance to scripture or church doctrine might be abusive to your fellow humans takes courages. Most people don't want to risk learning that a monster lurks within them, they prefer to believe that they are good and pleasing. And, maybe it is easier to blame it on God and/or scripture when they act unethically than to take personal responsibility?

Then again, just as I'm wary about an individuals testimony of a transcendental experience with God says anything about whether or not God exists, I'm also wary that scripture provides any relevance to our present quest to understand the universe and our part within it. It is hard to imagine that something comprised of ancient transcriptions of oral tradition covering ~2100 year period of history, gathered over a 1200 year period over 2000 years ago, before we began to understand the age and extent of the cosmos, before we understood that our minds are seated in our brains, before we understood our evolutionary relationship with the other animals within the animal kingdom, could/should be used as religious solutions or could/should be considered relevant to present quest for understanding about the universe and or place in it. At most it could provide us with a point of departure. In short, I am wary of the Bible's relevance as a guide to understanding human sexuality and am prone to think that while it addresses human issues, some of which we still struggle with, it really offers us a glimpse into how an ancient culture with a different world-view saw life and not a divine mandate for acceptability. Just my $0.02, though.
67
@46 We've admitted they got 25 things wrong so far. I'm not counting the 18th or 21st amendments because they cancel each other out, otherwise it would be 27.
68
That subhead is the funniest fucking thing I've seen in a long time! ".... sex columnist treated WITH GREAT RESPECT in Chicago."
69
Dan, you should post your interviews! How else can we properly stalk your career?
70
@44 You're not responding to any of the points raised in the interview or anything that anybody in the GLBT community is asked for. Maybe if you paid attention or tried to understand what progressives are saying, you wouldn't disagree so much.

We want equal protection under the law. If bullies did what they did to an adult or a child of a Senator, they would have been charged with assault. Instead because it's a gay kid they get to commit assault daily with no consequences.

And your version of Darwinism may loosely apply to solitary lizards, but is far too simple-minded to apply to humans. All social animals contribute to more than their own survival. Mike Tyson could beat Albert Einstein in a fight, but who contributed most to the survival of humanity? Also, as it is now, gay kids have to be way more tough than straight kids. It's not nanny statish to want an even playing field.
71
As an ex-Seattleite turned Chicagoan, I already support WTTW through my donations to WFMT, their affiliated radio station. But seeing as they're making the Xtianists all mad, I'll have to give them even more this year. Thanks, Petey, for helping me decide to open up the ol' checkbook!

Anyone else inclined to help WTTW (or KCTS, or whatever your local station) based on this, please feel free to send in a check. And tell them it's all thanks to Porno Petey!
72
@44 God, where to start? First, your comment:

"one of the main problems with todays kids is this single mommy raised mentalitys of these touchy ,feely pay attention to me attention whore kids."

Resisting the urge to edit, I will say that single parents don't raise kids who are spoiled any more often than two parents do. The spoiled kids I know are all products of two parent families. Spoiled, "attention whore" kids are not necessarily the ones getting bullied, either. You make it sound as though they are babied at home, and so have no interest in defending themselves at school. I would suggest that you know remarkably little about bullying. Kids are bullied for being different. Different takes a lot of forms: Sometimes it's being the awkward kid in a room full of athletes, sometimes it's being a pretty girl who goes to a new school, sometimes it's the gay kid in the conservative community. And while yes, everyone needs to learn to stand up for themselves, the bullying in today's schools goes beyond that. Kids wouldn't be killing themselves otherwise. These kids aren't asking a lot, they just want to finish high school without being verbally and physically assaulted.
73
@26 Thanks for the links. Sent an e-mail. I think these nimrods are mostly offended that Dan dares to speak plainly and he speaks the truth.

In case y'all haven't seen it here's a link to Dan & Bill Savage at the Chicago Humanities Festival. Great stuff! http://www.chicagohumanities.org/Genres/…
74
Used the contact form linked to above to send a note of support to WTTW. Watched it all the time growing up.
75
I love how everywhere else you're that "seattle columnist" but get in IL, and you're suddenly tagged as the "chicago native"

I understand you don't want to post all your interviews, and really that's not what your blog is for. but making us chase all over to find them is difficult :) maybe put together a reference page or a youtube channel that collects them in one place? you sure do a lot of these, it's always surprising to me when i stumble across yet another one.
76
@72: Nicely put.

(I was going to go with "@44: Go fuck yourself,"
but now that just seems... cheap.)
77
I loved the interview, but man do I wish someone coulda turned off that fan while you two spoke.
78
I wish you would post your interviews. The reason I come to your website is because I'm interested. That was really good. Thanks for a good column/webcast/blog and Happy New Year!
79
Admitting that one's compliance to homoliberal humanist dogma is murderously abusive to your fellow humans takes courages. Most people don't want to risk learning that a monster lurks within them, they prefer to believe that they are good and pleasing. But killing a million babies a year wears on the soul after a while.....
80
Keep posting your interviews, you nasty knob-licker, you.
81
Awesome, awesome interview, Dan. Although I agree that maybe you could have phrased your bible criticism better (ie, just pointing out how evangelicans uselessly pick and choose verses), on the whole it was a mind-blowingly awesome interview.

Just look: all the Stranger trolls are foaming at the mouth! The very incoherence of their replies is a joy to behold.
82
Thanks for posting! I thought it was a great interview - well said, Dan. Using the link conveniently provided by the angry AFTAH man, I sent WTTW a letter or support for the interview. Hopefully their inbox will also be "balanced."
83
Thanks Dan, enjoyed this from beginning to end. I liked the story of Ann Lander's desk -- I knew you had it but I don't think I've ever read/heard all the details. And Ann Lander's influence on Slog -- that's very funny. I had no idea.

And happy New Year, Slog! Except the trolls.
84
@56 FTW.

If Jesus came back today, I suspect he'd be appalled at how few people follow his teachings, and yet call themselves Christians.
85
Dan,
Have you checked the links in that letter? Your opponent
and his message
86
Aww, AfTAH used a ten-year-old picture, making you look all young and shit!

@66: Fuck! I was so busy this year I didn't get to sit down and check out FOX's War on Christmas coverage! It's always so heartwarming to see news stories about not privileging Christianity and/or secularizing legal holidays! I hope you're right and I wasn't missing much.
87
tee hee @ "Ponce"

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