Savage Love

Dan Savage. click to view source

“Savage Love”Author Talks LGBT
 at OSU!

I had the absolute privilege of attending Dan Savage’s lecture at the LaSells Stewart Center on Oregon State campus. The center was almost full with students, staff and curious citizens.

For those of you who don’t know, Dan Savage is a well- known writer of a sex column called “Savage Love.” He also is a gay rights activist and creator of the “It Gets Better Project,” which is about preventing suicide in the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) teen community.

Savage began his lecture by explaining the “It Gets Better Project.” The hope of the project is to show positive gay role models living real and fulfilling lives. Savage hopes this will help prevent suicide of gay teens like the series we had in 2010. The site has been a huge success and now has over 10,000 videos and many more links.

The site is something very personal to Savage who just wanted to help kids, “I needed to talk to LGBT kids, especially those who have parents who are hostile and or bullying themselves.”

Savage looked for an outlet and realized the age of the Internet gave him his opportunity. He said, “In the Youtube era, I was waiting for permission, which I didn’t need.” In the end, Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, created the “It Gets Better Project.”

The project itself has had a huge impact, affecting how people go about reaching out to LGBT teens who feel scared and alone in this world. According to Savage, “The goal was to save lives, and we have done that.” He talked about how a preacher who was linked to his website was actually able to prevent a suicide. “It saved lives. It still saves lives,” Savage said.

For the second half of his lecture, Savage took questions from the audience. They ranged from harmless questions like how to lose your virginity at 21, to fetishes about urine, to more fun questions like, “Who would you go straight for?”

Savage was a light of personality as the whole crowd ate up his humorous and searing openness to every question. He truly was fearless in all aspects, both sharing his personal sex stories and his views on our culture and how we treat each other. Savage was a true inspiration to those who believe in a world more kind and less judgemental about sex.

Savage said it best when he talked about all the changes we have made since he came out in 1981. “I had to tell my parents I couldn’t be a Marine, but just in my lifetime I’m married, I have children, and I can be a Marine.”