Brown Symposium
Dan Savage
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© Christopher Staton
Syndicated sex advice columnist; author, blogger, political pundit; creator of the “It Gets Better” Project; host of MTV’s “Savage U”
Dan Savage grew up in a “loud, argumentative, and very Catholic” family, and came out as gay as fruit cocktail. In 1991 he was the night manager at an independent video store in Madison, Wisconsin, when a co-worker told him he was planning to move to Seattle to start a new alternative newspaper. Savage, a self-described “pushy busybody,” replied, “You have to have an advice column. Everybody hates them, but everybody reads them.” And suddenly Savage, who’d never considered himself a writer before, was a snarky “Dear Abby” for the sexually active. Savage’s column, “Savage Love,” first appeared in 1991, in the first issue of The Stranger. The column (now syndicated to better alternative weeklies across America) is funny, informative, outrageous, non-judgmental (about consenting sex acts), and very judgmental (about moronic letter-writers). Savage is the author of The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family, Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins And The Pursuit Of Happiness In America, Savage Love: Straight Answers from America’s Most Popular Sex Columnist, and The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant. In 2010, Savage and his husband Terry Miller began the “It Gets Better” Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth. In addition to writing his column, doing his popular weekly podcast, and hosting MTV’s “Savage U”, Dan frequently appears as a political pundit on MSNBC, CNN, and other media outlets discussing LGBT issues, family planning, and birth control.


