Thank God for Dan Savage

I've long been a fan of Dan Savage. Ya gotta love a guy who rose to fame as a no-holds barred sex columnist and now makes the rounds as one of the most articulate talking heads on gay issues. His frankness mixed with his ability to talk to virtually anyone - including D.L. Hughley - is exciting and empowering. Plus, he's hawt.

Here he is somehow finding a way to answer questions that D.L. Hughley can't seem to ask (how did this guy get a show on CNN?) and respond to sweeping generalizations that Hughley doesn't take ownership of. In five minutes, they touch on a whole range of issues affecting Prop 8, and Savage is always able to nimbly place these finer details in a broader context. He raises the level of discourse in every conversation, and in this case, ends up doing Hughley a huge favor by helping him out of the uncomforable corner he seemed to be backing himself into. Watch it, and tell me that Dan Savage doesn't deserve his own talk show on CNN.

Comments

[Jared]

OMG he should totally have his own show! He would be a great spokesman for the gay community. He's articulate, good looking, and isn't "too" gay where he would scare the population of the square states.

CNN, listen up! Here's your new anchor!

Imagine the banter between him and Anderson Cooper. Talk about sexual tension!

[big93scott]

If you thought this was good, look at the most recent interview he had on The Colbert Report- hillarious!

[Mykal Romero]

I dunno but DL shouldn't have his own show.

[Scott]

I have always liked Dan Savage, until I saw him on CNN. He presented himself as a loud mouthed ignorant a-hole. He would not shut up & let anyone else speak or allow their views to be expressed. Dan Savage is the last person on earth I would want representing the gay community.

[lukos]

Hughley is an asshole. No one ever told him to his face that they didn't condone him being black. But he spouts this shit off in front of a gay man like he's running for deacon of his church. Screw you, you homophobic biggot.

[Bryan]

Dan is smart, he's articulate, and he's a horrible spokesperson for the GLBT community. He has the ability to debate and to "win" arguments, but our cause gets advanced by winning hearts and minds, not by "winning" arguments.

[Devryck Weaver]

No, he shouldn't have his own show. He's certainly a nice guy, but he's too dry to headline a talk show.

[Donald]

You're right. He is the right person to speak on these issues, and he is one of the hottest guys around.

[Queerplanet]

BUT IT IS A CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.

Capital letters and all you ignorant, religious upbringing retard.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION.

FREEDOM OF ASSOCIATION.

What? Just because you were slaves means you got something on us?

Honey, we couldn't even talk to each other in public about gay issues forty years ago without going to jail.

A dead black man or a dead gay man, a bashing is a bashing.

Wake up your Latino and Black religious upbringing jerks!

Or get the HELL out of the way.

[queerplanet]

And Dan Savage is way to conservative to be a spokesperson for the gay community at this time.

We need young people who won't tolerate this "oh don't upset my religious upbringing" nonsense.

It's not a capital letter issue.

Well Dan, there you go again soft peddling gay rights. Not the first time.

Freedom of expression and association are capital letter issues.

Fuck! What is wrong with gay people these days? What happened to your righteous anger, your fierce rejection of religious jerks like this talk show host.

[Clance]

I agree that he should have his own show. I watched the CNN discussion as well as the one on D.Ls' show.. He is very smart and well spoken ...

All i have to say about the sexual tension between him and Anderson is : back of bitch i called him !!!

[Devryck Weaver]

I don't feel like my rejection has to be fierce. I've dealt with being fiercely rejected because of who I am my whole life. I don't want to perpetuate that by also rejecting somebody fiercely.

[Devryck Weaver]

I feel like fellow gay guys are so quick to react with emotional outpourings. Be angry, be upset, but don't be a queen about it. Take action. That's the most effective way to channel your energy.

[Gary]

Sexiness aside and the fact he can be a bit of a loudmouth, he speaks well and doesn't always paint the gay world as a bunch of whores (we all have our moments).

Mainstream America obviously has a problem with gay marriage so a talk show I think would most likely fail. He's been a success on radio.

I wonder by the way how many blacks who think prop 8 is wrong even think about the stain of racism that affects them that also affects us.

[Michael]

DL seems to think gays haven't suffered as much as Blacks, as if it's some sort of contest. Uh, how many Blacks died in the Holocaust? Also, same-sex marriage may not be as big an issue as slavery, but I believe Blacks made a BIG issue out of water fountains and bus seating. Surely marriage rates close to those things. Hypocrites! I'm so thankful I'm Canadian and we've moved beyond such hate. It's funny how you Americans think your country is so free. LOL.

[Aaron]

Don't say LOL at the end of your comment. It makes you sound like an idiot.

[glaciermark]

Wow! What a thoughful intelligent, and articulate person Dan Savage is for the gay community, at least for my point of view. This is the sort of dialogue we should be engaged in. Thank you!

[DT]

I cannot stand Dan Savage ever since I discovered his column back in the early 90s. Obviously the "South Park Republicans" have infiltrated the tender young minds of this new "Millenial" (or whatever the kids call themselves today) gay mindset.
I'm just glad gays are finally getting political again. My advice to the 20-somethings. Stop watching "The Hills" and "Gossip Girl". Form your own opinions. Ignore assholes like Dan Savage. (BTW, how many times has he changed political positions and/or sexual persuasions?)

[seattle_wordsmith]

Ewh... Dan Savage annoys me. He rubs people the wrong way and is completely in love with the sound of his own voice. If you want a likable and smart gay man on CNN, petition Mr. Cooper to step out of his comfy sexual ambiguity, instead of importing the annoying Savage to come on his show. He should stay put in Seattle.

[R_Seattle_boi]

Funny how this became a Black issue when only 10% of the electorate in CA is Black. Then, only 70% voted for Prop 8. So what, that means only 7% of those that voted for Prop 8 were Black. So who made up the other 93%? I'm tired of those in the LGBT comunity who are scapegoating Blacks for the hatred of those in CA who decided to take away the right for gays to marry. Educate yourselves and stop looking for yet another issue to push bigotry within the gay community. We should be beyond that and we should be working together to figure out how to change this amendment to your constitution.

[Alex Boston]

You might want to do your homework on Dan Savage before promoting him to embarrass himself and more importantly embarrass gay America. Typical of a Planet Out operation however to raise the question, much like the disaster they exhibited of trying to use paid members as guinea pigs to rewrite their entire online program with failures chasing failures. No wonder why the stock hit an all time low today at .40 cents. Forty cents a share!

[David Agnew]

"Marriage -- regardless of the legal aspects of it..."

"You stand before God and you promise to cherish and love this man or this woman..."

Regardless of the legal aspects of it?? The legal aspects are ALL we are looking for! Stand before God? We're just looking to stand before the state! D.L. is totally ignorant of these issues and his words reveal why so many in CA -- regardless of race -- voted "Yes" on 8.

[Boyd]

His interview on The Colbert Report was hilarious. It is still available on their website. Very funny stuff, and he even manages to make Colbert break character. It's hard to get him to crack up, but his joke about Saddleback was very funny.

[Frankie]

Love Dan Savage, I've been hooked on him ever since I read his books...Read his books guys..this guy know what his talking about...

[Gregoire de la San Diego]

Never heard of Dan Savage.
But by the pic of him he doesn't look very savage.
& what ever happened to all the HOT Savage men.
Dan Savage should have his talk show in exchange for fucking ROSIE O'DONALD.
We need to send her back to Bedrock where she can only give Betty Rubble a bad name. Give her a SteakaSoreAss burger to shut her up!
Dan Savage, in my opinion is not all that good looking & Anderson Cooper is over rated her in Gay.com.
Now Bill Hammer or Hemmer is the hottest Cable news MAN, like Clark Kent is behind the glasses.
He can pound a nail me anytime!!!
LOL in all Caps anytime. ha ha ha
LIVE FOR TODAY & DON'T FEAR TOMORROW
who gives a sh.t bout Gay marriage. I amjust as happy not just gay without it.
And what if I choose not to be religious... then the typical definition of marriage doesn't apply to me now does it.
And why should I have to pay taxes for other people's kids?
I never attended public school(s).
Kids are just too time consuming & I can't stand the competition for attention.
And there is nothing any more wrong with the Gay youth of today then when we were allfucked up back then.
In fact, they got it right.
They don't worry too much about what is beyond their control, unless they are college students trying to be noticed.
Welcome to the United (ha ha ha) States where everyone is free to bitch, but most forget including myself that we have the right to just SHUT THE FUCK UP.
Our Canadian nieghbors sometimes have it right & in a lot of ways better.
Just got to respect them for that.
Anyways, if you don't like what I have just typed then let's step outside & fight.
& if you want to fight, stick your head up ya ass & fight for air.
LOL

[Griff]

It appalls me how many white queens exhausted their closet racism and racial frustrations in the wake of Prop. 8. How dare you?! How do you have the audacity to scapegoat black voters, when we don't even make up a majority of California voters. You want to scapegoat someone, scapegoat all the queens that live in the club and bars that didn't vote. Scapegoat the gay community overall for not offering enough outreach to people of color. You idiots must forget that the gay community just isn't WHITE, and that your comments that hint at your racial superiority makes you WORST than your oppressors in the Yes on 8 campaign. In my part of town (Riverside County) most of the Yes on 8 people were conservative white Republicans, where's your attacks on them? It appalls me that an oppressed minority group such as the gay community can have its own racist bigots that justify their ignorance as well. And also- gay isn't your identity. And if it is, then I feel sorry for you. I am so much more than gay. My skin color will never equate to my orientation, NEVER. I am seen as a Black American, always before I am seen as a gay Americans. Some white gay people truly need to wake up, because you are bringing down the community and igniting racial tensions.

[Garrett]

D. L. Hughley is a great comedian--and that's what he should stick to. I think the way he got his own show on CNN was by showing up on Larry King and Bill Maher's show and discussing politics in a thoughtful way. Unfortunately, as many people have observed, he isn't actually able to articulate his thoughts very well. Regardless, CNN clearly thought they should be "ahead of the curve" and give a black man who appeals to the "core black audience" his own show while there was a half-black man favored to win the presidency. Also, I'm sure Larry King put in a good word for him, since he clearly likes having him on his show. I think D.L. Hughley deserves to have a show, just not on CNN. The sad thing to me is that it looks like he *knows* he shouldn't have the show. He seems far less confident on his show than he does during interviews or his stage act. The poor guy is just out of his league.

Dan Savage is clearly very intelligent, but he can also be insistent that his views on everything are the right ones and other people are just idiots who haven't figured out the obvious. He could hold down his own show very well, but I don't think CNN would be a good place for it. Maybe Comedy Central or HBO, though.

[James]

I like Dan and didn't catch his LK appearance. What I did catch was his recent bit on Bill Maher where he greatly embarrassed himself, the host, and Ashton Kutcher by acting like some school girl in love.

[Dave Kerlick]

I don't think so. He's a publicity hound who mistakes notoriety for community support.

[SERIALSEAN]

I'm a little outraged at not only the idea of Dan Savage being given a spokesperson role for the GLBT community - but also the writer who wrote this short article suggesting it.
In the same short story where Savage is idolized for being a descriptively 'perfect' suit for the role - the writer throws all of the foundation he built for his case out the window he a decidedly retarded summarization that 'he's hawt' - which throws all of the stereotypes and ideas towards homosexuals being perverted and sex based right back in our own faces. Good job Clarke Hamlin - you've certainly diminished your case.
On top of it all - if you want Savage to be a spokesperson for GLBT equal civil rights - how will be accomplish this having a talkshow of his own interviewing other people? Don't you think that would take up the majority of time instead of advocating for equal civil rights? Some suggestions should be thought out instead of written out in an unmethodical nature into a 'blog.'
On the idea of Savage being a public spokesperson - I say no - I really don't want someone who has written positively about barebacking and open relationships to a younger audience in urban populations where confusion is already a prodominant concern with his readers - why else would they be writing in the first place?
The only thing I agree on in this article is that whoever any official spokes person would be that they would be someone articulate, intelligent, and of a more masculine quality who can appear to the public without resorting to over the top public displays of gayness.
I do hope the citizens of California and the rest of the USA win their civil rights and will help in any way I can.

SERIAL SEAN
CANADA

[Levi]

How on earth did D.L. Hughley get a show on CNN? Compare him to Nacy Grace, Glen Beck, etc etc. Dan Savage controled that interview. He did an awesome job, and for D.L. to say we have to march a little longer? Thats insane. We have evolved.

[JEFF EASTWOOD]

You can catch Dan's interview on The Colbert Report on Hulu (Tue, Nov 11, 2008 episode).

[JKennedy]

Dan Savage is a sex columnist not a spokesman. Granted he is articulate and at times eloquent. For him to go head to head with DL, which by the way is still baffling as to how a simpleton such as himself was able to land a talkshow gig, is a farse. If we are going to try to get a point across it may be best to have it expressed from someone that doesn't have a white face....enter Keith Boykin. I don't think that either of them are even educated enough on the civil rights movement to really stress a clear perspective.

No thanks since they failed to mentioned Bayard Rustin whom BOTH Professional Victim Hughely and Silly Savage need a lesson on, and every other gay person, of whatever color, left mute by pigs like Hughely and Jasmyne Coulter errr Cannick. Let's start with the fact that gay Rustin TAUGHT Martin Luther King, Jr., the finer points of Gandhian theory AND organized the Great "I Have A Dream” March on Washington. Here he is telling the truth over 20 years ago. Feel free to use it whenever anyone plays the victim card with you [after you remind them it's not 1863]:

“Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘niggers’ are gays. No person who hopes to get politically elected, even in the deep South...would dare stand in the school door to keep blacks out. Nobody would dare openly and publicly argue that blacks should not have the right to public accommodations. Nobody would dare to say any number of things about blacks that they are perfectly prepared to say about gay people. It is in that sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change.

Indeed, if you want to know whether today people believe in democracy if you want to know whether they are true democrats, if you want to know whether they are human rights activists, the question to ask is, ‘What about gay people?’ Because that is now the litmus paper by which this democracy is to be judged. The barometer for social change is measured by selecting the group that is most mistreated. To determine where society is with respect to change, one does not ask, ‘What do you think about the education of children’? Nor does one ask, ‘Do you believe the aged should have Social Security?” The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.”

Or, as Mel Boozer, the black president of DC’s Gay Activist Alliance when he addressed the 1980 Democratic National Convention, put it:

"Would you ask me how I'd dare to compare the civil rights struggle with the struggle for lesbian and gay rights? I can compare, and I do compare them. I know what it means to be called a nigger. I know what it means to be called a faggot. And I can sum up the difference in one word: none.”

AND Rustin again: "Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment."

No, I do not think that Dan Savage should have his own show if it is to be out of his domain/circus as a sex/advice columnist. Putting him in an arena to spar on political platforms would make him fit to be tied. The fact that we are only seeing him, as of late, on news programs is a little upsetting. It only leaves me to wonder where the suitable candidates are to be our voice behind the podium.

[JKennedy]

Dan Savage is a sex columnist not a spokesman. Granted he is articulate and at times eloquent. For him to go head to head with DL, which by the way is still baffling as to how a simpleton such as himself was able to land a talkshow gig, is a farse. If we are going to try to get a point across it may be best to have it expressed from someone that doesn't have a white face....enter Keith Boykin. I don't think that either of them are even educated enough on the civil rights movement to really stress a clear perspective.

No thanks since they failed to mentioned Bayard Rustin whom BOTH Professional Victim Hughely and Silly Savage need a lesson on, and every other gay person, of whatever color, left mute by pigs like Hughely and Jasmyne Coulter errr Cannick. Let's start with the fact that gay Rustin TAUGHT Martin Luther King, Jr., the finer points of Gandhian theory AND organized the Great "I Have A Dream” March on Washington. Here he is telling the truth over 20 years ago. Feel free to use it whenever anyone plays the victim card with you [after you remind them it's not 1863]:

“Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘niggers’ are gays. No person who hopes to get politically elected, even in the deep South...would dare stand in the school door to keep blacks out. Nobody would dare openly and publicly argue that blacks should not have the right to public accommodations. Nobody would dare to say any number of things about blacks that they are perfectly prepared to say about gay people. It is in that sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change.

Indeed, if you want to know whether today people believe in democracy if you want to know whether they are true democrats, if you want to know whether they are human rights activists, the question to ask is, ‘What about gay people?’ Because that is now the litmus paper by which this democracy is to be judged. The barometer for social change is measured by selecting the group that is most mistreated. To determine where society is with respect to change, one does not ask, ‘What do you think about the education of children’? Nor does one ask, ‘Do you believe the aged should have Social Security?” The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.”

Or, as Mel Boozer, the black president of DC’s Gay Activist Alliance when he addressed the 1980 Democratic National Convention, put it:

"Would you ask me how I'd dare to compare the civil rights struggle with the struggle for lesbian and gay rights? I can compare, and I do compare them. I know what it means to be called a nigger. I know what it means to be called a faggot. And I can sum up the difference in one word: none.”

AND Rustin again: "Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment."

No, I do not think that Dan Savage should have his own show if it is to be out of his domain/circus as a sex/advice columnist. Putting him in an arena to spar on political platforms would make him fit to be tied. The fact that we are only seeing him, as of late, on news programs is a little upsetting. It only leaves me to wonder where the suitable candidates are to be our voice behind the podium.

[Kennedy]

No thanks to either men who failed to mentioned Bayard Rustin whom BOTH Professional Victim Hughely and Silly Savage need a lesson on, and every other gay person, of whatever color, left mute by pigs like Hughely and Jasmyne Coulter er Cannick. Let's start with the fact that gay Rustin TAUGHT Martin Luther King, Jr., the finer points of Gandhian theory AND organized the Great "I Have A Dream” March on Washington. Here he is telling the truth over 20 years ago. Feel free to use it whenever anyone plays the victim card with you [after you remind them it's not 1863]:

“Today, blacks are no longer the litmus paper or the barometer of social change. Blacks are in every segment of society and there are laws that help to protect them from racial discrimination. The new ‘niggers’ are gays. No person who hopes to get politically elected, even in the deep South...would dare stand in the school door to keep blacks out. Nobody would dare openly and publicly argue that blacks should not have the right to public accommodations. Nobody would dare to say any number of things about blacks that they are perfectly prepared to say about gay people. It is in that sense that gay people are the new barometer for social change.

Indeed, if you want to know whether today people believe in democracy if you want to know whether they are true democrats, if you want to know whether they are human rights activists, the question to ask is, ‘What about gay people?’ Because that is now the litmus paper by which this democracy is to be judged. The barometer for social change is measured by selecting the group that is most mistreated. To determine where society is with respect to change, one does not ask, ‘What do you think about the education of children’? Nor does one ask, ‘Do you believe the aged should have Social Security?” The question of social change should be framed with the most vulnerable group in mind: gay people.”

Or, as Mel Boozer, the black president of DC’s Gay Activist Alliance when he addressed the 1980 Democratic National Convention, put it:

"Would you ask me how I'd dare to compare the civil rights struggle with the struggle for lesbian and gay rights? I can compare, and I do compare them. I know what it means to be called a nigger. I know what it means to be called a faggot. And I can sum up the difference in one word: none.”

AND Rustin again: "Our job is not to get those people who dislike us to love us. Nor was our aim in the civil rights movement to get prejudiced white people to love us. Our aim was to try to create the kind of America, legislatively, morally, and psychologically, such that even though some whites continued to hate us, they could not openly manifest that hate. That's our job today: to control the extent to which people can publicly manifest antigay sentiment."

No, I do not think that Dan Savage should have his own show if it so be outide of his domain/circus as a sex/advice columnist. He should leave the political arena for those candidates more suitable to spar and to be our voice from behind the podium. When approaching racial minorities it might be an obvious/clever choice to have our defense come from someone that does not have a white face. It makes it easier to relate our cause and easier to get our point across. Simply put, it's futile to have a white person talk about civil rights with someone that is black. Either way, both men need a firm education on the equating of civil rights and perhaps just the basics in civics. I am still a little baffled as to how such a simpleton without insight, such as DL, got a show based on a premise of current events. Where the HELL was Keith Boykin when the position for host was being cast? I mean, the last time I checked, Mr. Hughley could only boast a few guest spots in films, a failed television show, and a host of stand up routines orchestrated with a sixth grade vocabulary and recess playground poop jokes. The fact that he used the word quantify made me chuckle since he was able to apply to word in correct context. For him to actually obtain the capability to broadcast unfavored opinions on such a topic and national movement would make it seem that he has been sheathing his skills as an intellectual. I seriously doubt it. Everything he has to say on this said topic, as well as many other, is equivocal to, and as reputable, as the common boogan at a tractor pull opening a can of beer with his teeth.

[Kennedy]

And a final note....Where the HELL was Keith Boykin when this show's host was cast?

[Jeff]

He's way hot and way smart...that's how I like my men. Yes, he'd be a great talk show host...he can be our own male "Ellen".

[Sargon Bighorn]

Living in Seattle and seeing Dan move from doing drag for HIV/AIDS benefits way back in the day, to having his sex advice column take off nationally, to his mellow involvement now with LGBT organizations, to his book writing career, I understand he does not speak for all Gay Americans, but he's well spoken and not afraid to challenge the Radical Religious Extremists. However when he said the African American civil rights movement is The Civil Rights Movement (capital 'T' blah blah) he lost my support in that arena. My fight for CIVIL RIGHTS is no less than that of any other group denied CIVIL RIGHTS. Dan knows better too. A talk show? Nah he's got a kid to parent, he doesn't have the time.

[abbamanna]

I hear you, Sargon, but I am giving Dan the benefit of the doubt here, and looking at the black civil rights movement as a watershed moment in this country's history, I think it does, in a certain context, warrant the "capital letters". And I also think in the context of the conversation he was having, he was able to move the dialogue effectively forward without getting bogged down in comparing struggles w/ DL Hughley. I would guess Dan does know better, and he has to just pick his battles? That's what makes him a good guest - maybe not the best spokesperson for the entire gay population, but who the hell could be?

[Aaron]

I agree with him - there's a Civil Rights antecedent to which the gay community does not compute into - but the notion of "civil rights" is simply an umbrella to which anyone qualifies if they're being denied a right to which a majority population has access to. He's also an attractive man, which may help with certain audiences.

[Casey]

I am amazed at the host's confidence to display his bigotry and discrimination based on religious reasons.

[vesalius1514]

Dan's terrific, but I wish he would have stated how clearly advocacy for gay marriage directly mirrors the civil rights movement against miscegenation laws.

Religious voices similarly condemned marriage between people of different races, absurdly citing God's separation of races onto different continents as indication of divine will that they do not mix.

Shouldn't all of us – including D.L. Hughley - be equally saddened by the mixed race couples who were persecuted by the 1924 Racial Integrity Act as well as the 18,000 gay couples now targeted by Proposition 8?

[mike]

I Love Dan Savage. But, I disagree with him regarding theology. I think it is important to challenge christians, jews or muslims (since they are the people sh*t on us regularly and their erroneous theologies), especially judeo-christianity. Enough scholarly studies have been done to refute virtually every alleged admonition against same-sex love that the fundies and evangies claim are in their "bible". It's time to stop messin' around and take the fight right to those people--black, white, brown, whatever--who hide their sick bigotry behind an even sicker pseudo-religious piety.

[Jo]

We do have a LGBT commentator and a pretty good one on MSNBC by the name of Rachel Maddow.
I think Savage would also be a great commentator and on an additional network, which would make two which feature a LGBT anchor.
I'm all for it. More exposure, more understanding. Touch as many people as you can. It's harder to take rights away from people you know than those who you don't.

[irishabel]

I cannot imagine CNN ever giving Dan Savage his own show. He's a sex columnist who happens to be active in political affairs. I love his blog, I have it bookmarked but a show...I'm just not seeing the vision here.

[Jason]

It makes me laugh that the word "marriage" is so heated. I fail to see why the christians ( mostly ) use it as some holy grail, when I know alot of them don't adhear to their vows, or the tenents of the faith they must protect from us evil gay folk. Their faith has done so much good righ? The Inquisition and The Witch Trials were high points for them, when they got to kill those who dared not to convert. I am sure many would love that power now. They take alot of liberties with rights here, that others do not, when was the last time a court asked you to swear on a Koran? Or tell the truth so help you Quan Yin. They need to step aside and let us have the same fair shake they have. I don't want their blessing, or that of any faith that's not mine. I do however want the government to treat me with equity, and allow me to join in a union with the person I choose. Why is that so hard to understand?

[michael]

So once again we are told we need to be "second" class citizens in that our civil rights movement is "2nd to the
black civil rights movement". I could care less what anyone thinks, and that goes for white, black, pink or blue, of how I live my life. If blacks want to follow the religions of their oppressors, and isn't that strange how they do, then they can, but I am not following the religions of mine. I guess I am brighter than that. The bottom line is nobody, including blacks should be voting on our rights, unless of course we get to vote on theirs. A classic case of the victim(s) become the perpetrator(s).

[Billy]

Unfortunately, Dan made a fool of himself last week on the season final epidose of Bill Maher's show by hitting up on Ashton Kusher. Ashton told him off on the air. As a gay man, I felt Dan's behavior was totally inappropriate.

[Paul Rhodes]

After seeing this I don't care if Dan Savage has a show or not. What I do care about is any American telling others that their movement is not important. In 1967 Their were numerous states that a Caucasion and an African American could get married in. It makes me sick that two races who have suffered so much through time would vote this down. I lived in LA for 16 years. Should we not allow Latino's or Latina's in this country becuase they are ethnic, believe in a Catholic GOD? As stupid as that question is are the people who voted this down. As a GAY MAN... Who fought for Latino rights in LA it makes me sad and scared to see them turn their backs so quick. Have they forgot when people used to hate them out there? As for African Americans. I can't buy that GOD a loving GOD has taught you its ok to hate. I have to many friends that are Latino, and African American. I am married to a JEW and I myself am Christian. When do we accept each other for our diversity. All I can say is this. When I was an HIV counselor and was for 15 years everytime i did a test i found that the color of the blood that came out was RED. NO MATTER THE COLOR OR THE PERSON. WE ARE ALL THE SAME... Sorry folks. I hope before I have to MOVE to Canada this country really wakes up and starts loving all AMERICANS.. By the way my Grandfather fought in WW2 and landed D-Day plus one and lived. He stated that he never would have fought for this america today full of hate. My Uncle Fought VN a purple heart and a bronze star.. Yet as an American who was born raised and payed all the taxes if not more then most im still third class. I know time heals. This wound will not. I urge all people of this country to stand as ONE...I don't care what color you are. what you believe. LIVE IN PEACE and give ALL PEPOPLE EQUAL RIGHTS...WE ALL DESERVE IT.....Another Sad day in America. And yes I voted my BUTT OFF FOR OBAMA the new Kennedy of our great nation. Dont dare tell me I dont understand....

[borebox]

Savage did OK but just ok. Coretta Scott King was the only member of the King family to stand up for gay rights and for that she was ostracized. She understood that gays have struggled just as the blacks for recognition and I feel let down by the failure of the black vote. I was a facilitator for a GLBT support group at Michigan Tech and when a young black student was outed at home on a Thanksgiving visit. He was physically thrown out of the house. Blacks are closely tied to their religion and I feel strongly that Christianity is the problem.