Дэн Сэвидж: Жазушы, белсенді және ЛГБТ+ құқықтарының жақтаушысы

American sex advice columnist and gay rights campaigner
the American football, basketball, and baseball coach

Daniel Keenan Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and LGBT community activist. He writes Savage Love, an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth. He has also worked as a theater director, sometimes credited as Keenan Hollahan. Born in Chicago to Roman Catholic parents, Savage attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting. After living in West Berlin from 1988 to 1990, he moved to Madison, Wisconsin, where he befriended Tim Keck, co founder of The Onion. When Keck moved to Seattle, Washington, Savage moved as well to become an advice columnist for The Stranger, which Keck founded; he had offered Savage the position after Savage wrote a sample column which impressed him. Savage has since become a sex columnist and a vocal proponent of LGBT rights in the United States, voicing his advocacy through his column, Savage Love, and a podcast version of his column, the Savage Lovecast. In 2001, Savage and his readership coined the term pegging to describe a woman anally penetrating a man with a strap on dildo. Outside of his writings and podcasts, Savage has advocated for progressive politics and advancing the rights of LGBT youth to prevent suicide in the community. He has opposed laws restricting pornography and the sale of sex toys, and founded the It Gets Better Project with his husband Terry Miller, whom he married in 2005. Savage has been featured on numerous television programs and news outlets, including Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Anderson Cooper 360. Savage has attracted controversy over his comments and actions related to LGBT issues. He coined the term santorum to define a by product of sex after former senator Rick Santorum made anti LGBT comments in 2003, and condemned the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints for its support of California Proposition 8, which banned same sex marriage in California. His activism and public speaking has brought praise from celebrities and politicians, including former president Barack Obama.

Dan Savage was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Judith "Judy" (née Schneider), who worked at Loyola University, and William Savage Sr. He has German and Irish ancestry. The third of four children, he has two brothers and one sister. Though Savage has stated that he considers himself "a wishy washy agnostic" and an atheist, he continues to identify as "culturally Catholic". Savage attended the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, where he received a BFA in Acting.

In 1991, Savage was living in Madison, Wisconsin, and working as a night manager at Four Star Fiction and Video (now Four Star Video Cooperative), a local video store that specialized in independent film titles. Savage wrote a sample column, and to his surprise, Keck offered him the job. Savage stated in a February 2006 interview in The Onions A. V. Club (which published his column until 2021) that he began the column with the express purpose of providing mocking advice to heterosexuals, since most straight advice columnists were "clueless" when responding to letters from gay people. In his February 25, 1999, column, Savage announced that he was retiring the phrase, claiming that the reclamation had been successful.) was a founder of Seattle's Greek Active Theater. Letters from the Earth (2003), also at Consolidated Works, was Savage's most recent production. Letters was a trimmed version of Mark Twain's The Diary of Adam and Eve. It received scathing reviews, including one from The Stranger "My Boss's Show Stinks".

In addition to writing a weekly column and four books, Savage has been involved in several other projects. From 1994 until 1997, he had a weekly three hour call in show called Savage Love Live on Seattle's KCMU (now KEXP FM). From 1998 to 2000, he ran the biweekly advice column Dear Dan on the news website abcnews. com. He is now the editorial director of the weekly Seattle newspaper The Stranger, a promotion from his former position as The Strangers editor in chief. Savage stars in Savage U on MTV, contributes frequently to This American Life and Out magazine, and acts as a "Real Time Real Reporter" on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher. He has also made multiple appearances on MSNBC's Countdown with Keith Olbermann and CNN's Anderson Cooper 360, to discuss LGBT political issues, such as same sex marriage and Don't Ask Don't Tell. In 2014, he participated in Do I Sound Gay?, a documentary film by David Thorpe about stereotypes of gay men's speech patterns. In 2016, he was the first guest of Twice Removed, a family history podcast hosted by A. J. Jacobs. In the episode, Savage's lineage was traced to Nan Britton, Paul Popham, and others.

The Savage Lovecast is a weekly audio podcast based on the column Savage Love, available via iTunes and at the Strangers website for free download. It features Savage answering anonymous questions left by callers on a voice recorder (answering machine). He often returns calls to questioners who give their phone numbers, and such phone calls are part of the podcast. He also consults with doctors, sex therapists, and other experts for answers to questions he calls "above my pay grade". There are frequent guest co hosts, all of them sex positive. It is routinely rated as the top podcast in the iTunes "Health" category and in the top 20 of all podcasts overall. A. V. Club listed the show as one of "The best podcasts of 2010" and later as one of "The best podcasts of 2013". The Atlantic listed the show as one of "The 50 Best Podcasts of 2016".

Based on an idea by Savage (who also served as executive producer), the ABC television series The Real O'Neals, starring Noah Galvin, debuted in 2016. The series chronicles the lives of a close knit, Irish American Chicago Catholic family whose matriarch takes their reputation in the community very seriously. In the pilot episode, their perfect image is shattered when each family member has a secret revealed to the community: middle child Kenny is gay, oldest child Jimmy is anorexic, youngest child Shannon is running a money scam and might be an atheist, and parents Eileen and Pat are no longer in love and wish to divorce. The series lasted for two seasons before its cancellation.

Savage married Terry Miller in Vancouver in 2005. Following the 2012 legalization of same sex marriage in Washington state, he and Miller were part of the first group of 11 couples to receive Washington state marriage licenses. Savage and Miller were married on December 9, 2012, at Seattle City Hall, opened on Sunday especially for the purpose of hosting the first same sex weddings in Washington state, with Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn and others in attendance. The couple has a son, whom they adopted as an infant c. 1998. Savage chronicled the experience of adopting their son in his 1999 book The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant.

On September 21, 2010, Savage founded the It Gets Better Project following the suicide of 15 year old Billy Lucas, who was bullied for his perceived sexual orientation. The project encourages adults, both LGBT and otherwise, to submit videos assuring gay teenagers that life can improve after bullying in early life. As of November 2013, the project had more than 50,000 user created testimonials and had been viewed over 50 million times.

Savage has always been pro pornography, especially Internet pornography. Savage coordinates the annual Hump pornography festival, which is made up of clips of up to five minutes on any pornographic topic, submitted by viewers. Winning submissions are shown in theaters around the United States, providing a unique experience as straight, gay male, bi, lesbian, and fetish porn are all shown together, one after another. Savage publicly destroys the submissions after conclusion of the festival.

After Rick Santorum, then a U. S. senator from Pennsylvania, made comments in 2003 to a reporter comparing homosexual sex to bestiality and incest, Savage assailed Santorum in his column. Later, he sponsored a contest that led to the term santorum being used to refer to "the frothy mixture of lube and fecal matter that is sometimes a byproduct of anal sex". Savage set up a website to publicize this application of the term. In 2010, Savage offered to take down his website if Rick Santorum would agree to donate US$5 million to a gay rights group. Savage told Mother Jones in 2010, "If Rick Santorum wants to make a $5 million donation to [the gay marriage group] Freedom to Marry, I will take it down. Interest starts accruing now." Evan Wolfson, executive director of Freedom to Marry, responded in a statement to Metro Weekly, "Support for Freedom to Marry's national campaign would be welcome—and a good way for Rick Santorum to start cleaning up the discriminatory mess he and his companions have made." Santorum condemned the campaign and accused Savage of defaming him. Savage responded by further denouncing Santorum and accused him of propagating discrimination against the LGBT community through his viewpoints. In 2009 Savage invited his readers to vote to define saddlebacking as "the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex to preserve their virginities." He was protesting the vocal support given to California Proposition 8 by Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church), and President Barack Obama's invitation to Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration. When Savage vowed to boycott Utah due to strong Mormon support for Proposition 8, the Salt Lake City Weekly dropped Savage's column.

Savage's editorship of The Stranger has established him as a voice in local Seattle politics. His most high profile commentary has been as an outspoken critic of the Teen Dance Ordinance and other crackdowns on all ages events. Savage argues that closing down supervised all ages dance venues drives teens to boredom and reckless activities: "Places like Ground Zero and the Kirkland Teen Center are invaluable from a law enforcement point of view. They keep kids out of, say, 7 Eleven parking lots or the homes of friends whose parents are away."

Savage tends toward liberal political views, with pronounced contrarian and libertarian streaks. He frequently mentions political issues in his column, particularly issues that affect family planning, birth control, and sexuality. He often encourages readers to get involved and/or voice a positive or negative opinion about a politician or public official. Savage has also opposed state legislation prohibiting the sale of sex toys. After an exposé by Kandiss Crone from WLBT in Jackson, Mississippi, precipitated the arrest and fining of an adult video store owner, Savage satirically suggested that readers send Crone any sex toys that they needed to dispose of. In a 2006 interview with the Daily Pennsylvanian, Savage claimed that Carl Romanelli, who was briefly the Green Party's candidate for U. S. Senate in that year's election in Pennsylvania, was partially funded by state Republicans for a spoiler effect against Democrat Bob Casey Jr., and further stated that Romanelli "should be dragged behind a pickup truck until there's nothing left but the rope". He also said that if Romanelli, who had been disqualified from appearing on the general election ballot, was allowed back on the ballot, "someone should run him over with a truck". Immediately after the interview, Savage wrote, "I regret using that truck metaphor, and didn't mean it literally, and it was in poor taste, and I regret it." On a 2011 episode of Real Time with Bill Maher, during a panel discussion on the debt limit increase negotiations between the U. S. Congress and President Barack Obama, Savage said, "I wish [the Republicans] were all fucking dead." He apologized for the comment on his blog later the same night, saying, "I don't feel that way", adding that his father voted Republican, and calling it "a stupid, rude, thoughtless remark, a flubbed expression of disgust".

In January 2000, Savage traveled to Iowa to write about the state's presidential caucuses for Salon. He wrote that he had planned "to follow one of the loopy conservative Christian candidates around—[Gary] Bauer or [Alan] Keyes—and write something insightful and humanizing about him, his campaign, and his supporters", but he was so angered by remarks that Bauer made in opposition to same sex marriage that he abandoned the idea. Instead, Savage, who had been sick with influenza, said that he volunteered for the Bauer campaign with the intent to spread his flu to the candidate and his supporters. He claimed to have licked numerous items in the campaign office, including doorknobs, office supplies, and coffee cups, and later covered a pen in his saliva before handing it to Bauer. Savage also reported registering and participating in the Iowa Republican caucus, which was illegal, as he was not an Iowa resident. He pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of fraudulent voting in a caucus, and was sentenced to a year's probation, 50 hours of community service, and a $750 fine.

In 2011, J. Bryan Lowder of Slate stated wrote Savage "often takes heat for his less than refined statements on issues like the existence of male bisexuality, the responsibility of asexuals to 'come out' before dating, and, indeed, certain issues surrounding transgenderism." Savage has repeatedly been the focus of controversy for his use of slurs regarding the transgender community, other remarks regarding trans issues, and for claiming as a joke that Rob McKenna, who was attorney general of Washington from 2005 to 2013, is a transgender man, though he is not. He has been glitter bombed three times, twice in 2011 and once in 2012, by protesters who alleged that he is transphobic, among other accusations. In 2014, during a seminar at the University of Chicago on social media, Savage discussed his past use of the word "tranny". He objected to a student's request that he use the phrase "T slur" instead, and gave examples of other slurs. Some students criticized him, claiming that he tried to make the student feel threatened and uncomfortable. A University representative said, "A guest used language that provoked a spirited debate. The speaker was discussing how hurtful words can be repurposed and used to empower; at no point did he direct any slurs at anyone." Savage later thanked the University for standing up for him and demanded an apology from those who had accused him of hatred towards trans people.

In addition to his advice column, Savage has written four books, edited one book, and authored various op ed pieces in The New York Times.

Year Work Award Organization Result1999The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get PregnantPEN West Award for Excellence in Creative NonfictionPEN Center USAWon2003Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in AmericaLambda Literary AwardLambda Literary FoundationWon2004The Best American Sex Writing 2004Running PressFeatured selection2011It Gets Better ProjectWebby Award for Special AchievementInternational Academy of Digital Arts and SciencesWonAnthony Giffard "Make the Change" AwardMaster of Communications in Digital Media program, University of WashingtonWon2013It Gets Better ProjectBonham Centre AwardThe Mark S. Bonham Centre for Sexual Diversity Studies University of TorontoWon2013Advocacy of separation of church and state and work for LGBT youth2013 Humanist of the YearThe American Humanist AssociationWon