 |
Dan Savage
|
Dan Savage can be (and has been) called a fag, a homo, a sissy boy and even a pervert. But he can never be called an adulterer. And, for some reason, this dismays him.
"One of the funniest things for me to find out was I couldn't commit adultery," says Savage, speaking from his office at Seattle's The Stranger alternative weekly. "What a crushing disappointment to me. My boyfriend was relieved I didn't go out and commit adultery."
But the thought did cross Savage's mind. It was all in the name of work for his latest book, Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America. The joy of sleeping with another didn't enter the equation at all. Yeah, right.
Alas, it wasn't to be, as out-and-proud Savage can't enjoy the same rights as oversexed heterosexual men. And he doesn't see why not.
"I'm going to burn in hell one way or another," he explains, mocking the response of conservative religious sects.
Close-minded individuals can find much at fault with Savage. Aside from his (gasp!) homosexuality, he's enjoying a long-term relationship with his boyfriend, Terry. Not only that, but they don't hide their lifestyle from their 5-year-old son, D.J., and they're in the early stages of adopting a second child. Oh, the horror! Never mind the fact that Savage is a loving father.
"Having a kid is like having a heroin habit," he explains. "When it's bad, you've never suffered so much in your life. When it's good, you're so high."
Others might find two men raising a child to be horrifying, but for D.J. the situation is normal. It's home.
"It's the water he swims in," Savage says. "It doesn't feel foreign or alien to him. But he does know that other families are different. And I don't think that's a curse," Savage says. "There are plenty of kids in the country to worry about. My kid ain't one of them."
But folks continue to worry about Savage. Apparently, he's single-handedly leading to the degradation of society with his ribald Savage Love column. While it's true that his exploration of love and sex can make even the most open-minded people wince, Savage simply reports on the true-life mating habits of humans -- whether or not people acknowledge this behavior exists.
"There's two kinds of people in this world," Savage says, "those being honest and those being dishonest."
So Savage has taken it upon himself to come to the aid of those whose lifestyles are frowned upon. He's a new breed of superhero. The letter "S" he wears figuratively across his chest stands for Sinnerman.
"No one ever spoke up for the sinners," he says. "No one will come to the defense of pot smokers. No one will come to the defense of adulterer. I wanted to put those things in a book and throw it back in (conservatives') faces."
Skipping Towards Gomorrah does just that as Savage takes a road trip exploring -- and often partaking in -- the seven deadly sins with regular practitioners of the moral offenses.
"There's no shortage of people in this country who will not shut up about their private lives," he says. "A lot of people are sick of being told they're sinners. This is going to sound awful. I picked sins that had appeal to me. I may be the only American who got to write off his prostitution bills last year."
He's joking. I think. But Savage does have a certain proclivity for hot, sweaty, man-on-man sex. In his column, he regularly references his wet dreams about That '70s Show's Ashton Kutcher.
"Lust is my favorite sin," he says. "I think lust is a beautiful thing. I wake up horny, and I go to bed horny, and I'm horny at lunch. You can't avoid being horny. Lust is idling on neutral. Why not enjoy it? It's going to be with you forever. You shouldn't control it. You should control how you behave."
And be proud of it, even if that means you're a fag, a homo, a sissy boy, a pervert or a wannabe adulterer.
DAN SAVAGE will sign and discuss Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America at 7 p.m. Friday at Joseph-Beth Booksellers. He'll then partake in "Live Savage Love," an off-the-cuff Q&A, at 10 p.m. at Hamburger Mary's, Downtown.
Printer-friendly version
