Dan Savage on President Obama’s It Gets Better video: It’s another example of “symbolic importance” out of the White House. Annnnd .. that’s about it.
lip service
Dear President Obama, Thanks For The Kind Words, Now How About Some Action? Kisses, Dan Savage
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Woody
I love Dan Savage. He is very eloquent and has a bright future in championing GLBT rights.
Activists Need Your $upport
These times make us recognize that we cannot make progress until we punish these bigots. Help us do that. Help us take this fight into the streets, churches and homes of bigots. We should be having angry rallies, but we need your help. Please donate now before more children die: http://www.getequal.org We know the enemy is Christians. Help us confront them. Pay for your equality instead of hoping for it.
We are leading the way. Please help us attack those that are attacking us. It is the only way to win and we are professionals. We know how to do this. We just need your financial support. Give now. Give like you are serious, WE are.
JoeyB
Ok Dan, I agree with you, but you need to add one thing at the end when you talked about gay kids not having anyone to look up to: that includes us gays. We glorify porn stars, club culture, etc., and that’s what our kids learn is what they should aspire to. How about shedding some light on that too?
Mike
I support my President.
Kev C
Dan needs to lose the aryan, skinhead look. And get some proper lighting. Looks like a halloween decoration.
Avenger
Shut up Dan.
DR
I respect Dan for the It Gets Better Project, but lost a hell of a lot of respect with his recent bigoted railings against religion. He paints Christians with the same broad brush the more conservative Christians paint teh gehys.
Bigotry shouldn’t be matched by more bigotry. It just breeds more screaming at each other and alienates more progressive allies who feel like Dan is expecting them to choose between their faith and their support for the GLBT community.
Sarah
DR,
I agree 100%, but prepare to get flamed.
SBC19
I lost respect for Dan when the day after Prop 8 passed, he got on his blog and angrily spout off a bunch of BS against African-Americans for supposedly making it happen, then a week later he went on DL Hugley’s CNN show and suddenly adopted a “diplomatic” tone. He wasn’t nearly as bold with his indignation there. Coward. Dan Savage is a media whore, who desperately craves press and airtime.
Yeah, yeah…I know…thumbs down to the point of this comment being hidden for a low rating. My position stands, I don’t like Dan Savage — at all.
robert in nyc
Dr and Sarah, so who are the religious leaders who’ve condemned the bullying of LGBT people? Most of the religious denominations hold some responsibility for this, in particular some of those right wing evangelicals, the roman catholic church, the mormon sect, orthodox judaism and islam. They’ve taken NO responsibility for their anti-gay vitriole based on one verse in the old testament. Dehumanizing, denigrating, humiliating gay people is hardly what one would call “christian” in my view. Such language sends a clear message to homophobes that its ok to go out and bully, bash and kill us, then deny that its not about hate and that discrimination is wrong. Please, if that’s not hypocrisy and bigotry, I don’t know what is. Stop acting as apologists if you don’t want to become part of the problem.
gregger
Most of the homophobic bullying I have received as a adult has been from CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. The next largest group after that it was from Ultra-Orthodox Jewish groups and their numbers are small. I consider Dan’s bashing of Christian groups fair game after the sheer hell I have seen them dish out. Yes there are wonderful groups within some sects of Christianity, but until they begin to speak out loudly against homophobia (like Episcopal Bishop Gene Robinson) they by their inaction are complicit with the bigots.
Flipper
@JoeyB: I see what you’re saying, but are you really comfortable lumping ALL gays in as “glorify[ing] porn stars, club culture, etc”? It’s an unsupportable generalization. My partner and I haven’t been to a club in six years, and the only porn stars I might be able to name haven’t made films since the early ’90s. We call ourselves “relatively boring gays” in that we, like most of society, live pretty simple lives: go to work, come home & spend some time together, the occasional “date night” when we get the chance. Yes, of course there are gays that are porn/club obsessed, but the same can be said of straight folks – and none of them are bad people because of it. Celebrate diversity in all its forms.
JoeyB
@robert in nyc: yeah, and like I stated before, us gays are not free of guilt. I can accept your premise if you can accept that we as a community have failed, and continue to fail, our kids for the reasons I mentioned above. It is time for us to grow up.
Jackson
I like Dan Savage. He could have a good conversation with the President. That would be refreshing compared to GetEQUAL’s stupid embarrassing stunts.
Robin and Kip should stop posting requests for donations on everyone’s website.
JoeyB
@Flipper: Hey Flipper, yes, I agree with you, and I did not mean to say it was every gay man. I also don’t fit in that category. But a fact is a fact: gay porn occupies a much more prevalent position in the popular culture of our community. I am not adopting a religious or moralistic position against porn – what I am saying is that we have glorified these concepts of clubs, drugs, sex, body and porn to the point that it dehumanizes us in front of one another. So many men become like the characters in “Mean Girls”, when we should really be practicing what we preach about community. You and I and many others know that all gay life is not like that, but so many other people do not. Even if it’s just a problem of perception and stereotyping, they are big problems. For example: if gay porn star want to start contributing to the “It Gets Better” project, would you agree with that? I mean, you’re saying “celebrate diversity”, well, that is a catch-all concept that really opens up a can of worms. Do we want young, impressionable kids who feel desperate, isolated, in fear and hopeless to be getting advice from guys whose latest project was getting a plastic dildo made? If we truly are going to celebrate diversity, then yes, by all means, gay porn stars, escorts, masseurs, etc. should be able to participate. The question is: is that appropirate for the message that we want to get through? There is a time and a place for everything, and this is the time to show that we have matured as a community, that we can take our ourselves and actually do something concrete. Your position is very politically-correct oriented, but I say, the time for that is over. Truths can be hard and ugly, but if we don’t face them, we are doomed. And if you don’t like them, that is your choice. But not a very good one at that, I would say.
BubbasBack
@SBC19: Savage’s getting a LOT of free publicity for this, getting most of the attention. Kids are not paying attention to him. Throw the bum out!
BubbasBack
@Kev C: Hahah, he looks like a Nazi crackhead! Burp.
Michael @ LeonardMatlovich.com
NURSE: “What beautiful flowers! Who sent them to you?”
ANSWER: “The man who put me in the hospital.”
[img]http://www.nvdaily.com/news/images/jan09/smh_volunteer1.jpg[/img]
Teddypig
If the only thing YOU see in the gay community is porn stars and club queens then may YOU need to grow up and quit hanging out at discos and bars. There are other aspects and websites of the community you can involve yourself in.
ewe
Obama is completely in the dark regarding LGBT issues. I have no doubt he has many many many gay friends too. (ahem.sarcasm) But just where they are is the question.
robert in nyc
JoeyB, nobody is saying we’re free of guilt. We’re not all stereotypes as the media and society like to paint us as being. Its tantamount to saying, as many straights do, that AIDS is a gay disease, its isn’t and it never was. Maybe if we had full equality, if we all were able to marry, could serve openly in the military, put an end to discrimination in the workplace and in the delivery of goods and servcies, get some stability in our lives and in our relationships, we wouldn’t feel compelled to ghettoize ourselves, live the stereotypical lives that we’re supposed to be living in the eyes of the extremists, bigots and homophobes, then maybe the younger generation wouldn’t feel the need to take their own lives and bullying might in some way diminish once we’re fully integrated into society. Just as we may have failed some of the younger generation (not all of us, but some), maybe if society hadn’t failed us asthe last group that it can discriminate against, then maybe we wouldn’t have any need for this conversation.
That said, I assume you would apply the same responsibility to some of our straight counterparts who aren’t doing a spectacular job raising children who have become today’s and tomorrow’s gay bashers and killers, exacerbated in part by antigay statements made by religious denominations and other right wing groups and politicians of that ilk. I don’t hear much condemnation from straight leaders condemning that or taking a stand. Where is the outrage?
Ronbo
The content of a man’s character is demonstrated by what he does, not what he says.
Dan is a hero.
Obama is a zero.
I know, I know, he is better than Hitler. But, I believe that we can do better, much – much – much better. Obama’s own Justice Department has gone to court four (4) times and has argued that LGBT Americans deserve the same protections as sex predators and pedophiles.
This is not a man of good character. If we allow him to bully us out of the Military, out of marriage rights, out of equality, then we are allowing ourselves to be second-class citizens.
We deserve better. We deserve someone better than Obama. Say it with me; otherwise, you are making yourself a second-class citizen. Up with this bullshit, I will not put!
Rainfish
[img]http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jCT9n9hItmA/TMV1KpM55HI/AAAAAAAAAd0/uqgWfzgQCI4/s1600/obama-and-rick-warren1.jpg[/img]