I don’t usually post my own interviews… but this one is giving the religious right fits, so I’m making an exception. Also: I usually credit Sam Harris, author of Letter to a Christian Nation (and other books), when I go off about how the Bible got slavery wrong. Harris doesn’t connect that error to human sexuality in Letter, but the observation—if the authors of the Bible got the easiest moral question there is wrong, what else did they get wrong?—was his, and I cite it, and plug Sam’s book up, frequently when I speak at colleges. But somehow I brain farted it for the cameras.

84 replies on “Interview on WTTW”

  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.

  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!

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.

  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.)

  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?

  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.

  40. 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.

  41. More Savage Hate

    Wikipedia describes Savage as a hate-filled, vulgar anti-religious homosexual extremist.

  43. 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. 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………

  46. 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.

  49. 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.

  50. 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.)

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