American Savage: Insights, Slights, and Fights on Faith, Sex, Love, and Politics

by Dan Savage

  194 95 Griswold, Salon’s Irin Carmon points out, “struck down a ban on discussing or providing contraception to married couples: Irin Carmon, “Rick Santorum Is Coming for Your Birth Control,” Salon, January 4, 2012, http://www.salon.com/2012/01/04/rick_santorum_is_coming_for_your_birth_control/.

  198 It is tough, after all, being a young surrogate for a candidate and father clinging to an older worldview: Elise Foley, “Rick Santorum Saves Cash, Gains a Surrogate, By Turning to Daughter,” The Huffington Post, January 2, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/02/rick-santorum-daughter_n_1179470.html.

  200 Sen. Rick Santorum may have lost the presidential primaries in Arizona and Michigan: Ian Sherr and Geoffrey A. Fowler, “Rick Santorum’s Google Problem Subsides,” The Wall Street Journal, February 29, 2012, http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2012/02/29/rick-santorums-google-problem-subsides/.

  200 Rick Santorum’s presidential campaign says his ‘Google problem’ has been solved: Alex Pappas, “Santorum Campaign Says ‘Google Problem’ Has Been Solved,” The Daily Caller, May 23, 2012, http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/23/santorum-campaign-says-google-problem-has-been-solved/.

  15. Still Evil. Less Evil. But Still Evil.

  204 In November of 2010, the pope weighed in on the debate, calling health care an “inalienable right,”: Sarah Delaney, “Pope, Church Leaders Call for Guaranteed Health Care for All People,” Catholic News Service, November 18, 2010, http://www.catholicnews.com/data/stories/cns/1004736.htm.

  205 The United States is the only major nation in the industrialized world that does not guarantee health care as a right to its people: Senator Bernie Sanders, “Single Payer Health: It’s Only Fair,” The Health Care Blog, May 19, 2011, http://thehealthcareblog.com/blog/tag/bernie-sanders/.

  206 As a general rule, societies that do the most to support mothers and child-bearing have the fewest abortions: David Frum, “Let’s Get Real About Abortions,” CNN Opinion, CNN, October 29, 2012, http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/29/opinion/frum-abortion-reality/index.html.

  207 All, and I mean all, the evidence says that public systems like Medicare and Medicaid, which have less bureaucracy than private insurers: Paul Krugman, “The Medicare Killers,” Opinion, The New York Times, August 30, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/31/opinion/Krugman.html?_r=0.

  209 The core drivers of the [PPACA] are market principles formulated by conservative economists: J. D. Kleinke, “The Conservative Case for Obamacare,” Opinion, The New York Times, September 29, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/30/opinion/sunday/why-obamacare-is-a-conservatives-dream.html?_r=1&.

  209 [DeMint] is, arguably, the perfect candidate to run a post-thought think tank: Dana Milbank, “Come to Think of It, Jim DeMint and the Heritage Foundation Make Sense,” Opinions, The Washington Post, December 7, 2012, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2012-12-07/opinions/35673422_1_heritage-foundation-education-policy-president-obama.

  210 That’s what Mitt Romney said in 2006…when he described the individual mandate in his health care bill: “Individual Health Care Insurance Mandate Has Roots Two Decades Long,” Politics, Fox News, June 28, 2012, http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/28/individual-health-care-insurance-mandate-has-long-checkered-past/.

  211 People have access to health care in America…. After all, you just go to an emergency room: Rachel Weiner, “Romney: Uninsured Have Emergency Rooms,” Post Politics (blog), The Washington Post, September 24, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2012/09/24/romney-calls-emergency-room-a-health-care-option-for-uninsured/.

  211 Five years later Mitt Romney would make the same claim: “We do provide care for people who don’t have insurance”: Ibid.

  211 An estimated 44,789 Americans were dying every year for lack of health insurance: Physicians for a National Health Program, “Harvard Study Finds Nearly 45,000 Excess Deaths Annually Linked to Lack of Health Coverage,” pnhp.org, September 17, 2009, http://www.pnhp.org/news/2009/september/harvard_study_finds_.php.

  212 We don’t have a setting across this country where if you don’t have insurance: Avik Roy, “Why Health Insurance Is Not the Same Thing as Health Care,” The Apothecary (blog), Forbes, October 15, 2012, http://www.forbes.com/sites/aroy/2012/10/15/why-health-insurance-is-not-the-same-thing-as-health-care/.

  212 Lack of health insurance might have led or contributed to nearly 17,000 deaths among hospitalized children in the United States: Ekaterina Pesheva, “Lack of Insurance May Have Figured in Nearly 17,000 Childhood Deaths, Study Shows,” press release from Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, October 29, 2009, http://www.hopkinschildrens.org/lack-of-insurance-may-have-figured-in-nearly-17000-childhood-deaths.aspx.

  213 Twelve-year-old Deamonte Driver died of a toothache Sunday: Mary Otto, “For Want of a Dentist,” The Washington Post, February 28, 2007, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/27/AR2007022702116.html.

  214 “You guys are evil,” Bieber said: Vanessa Grigoriadis, “The Adventures of Super Boy,” Rolling Stone, March 3, 2011, http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/justin-bieber-talks-sex-politics-music-and-puberty-in-new-rolling-stone-cover-story-20110216#ixzz2Ez30Cyh3.

  214 Rather than simply providing health insurance to everyone by extending Medicare to cover the whole population: Paul Krugman, “The Big Deal,” The New York Times, January 20, 2013, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/21/opinion/krugman-the-big-deal.html?_r=0.

  215 And we will still be reading headlines like this one from the Associated Press: Associated Press, “Bartenders Rally to Help Famous Seattle Barman,” The Wenatchee World, November 1, 2012, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com/news/2012/nov/01/bartenders-rally-to-help-famous-seattle-barman/.

  217 Unless you’re a Warren Buffett or Bill Gates, you’re one illness away from financial ruin: Theresa Tamkins, “Medical Bills Prompt More Than 60 Percent of U.S. Bankruptcies,” CNN Health, June 5, 2009, http://articles.cnn.com/2009-06-05/health/bankruptcy.medical.bills_1_medical-bills-bankruptcies-health-insurance?_s=PM:HEALTH.

  220 “We have to do that,” Liautaud said on Fox News in October of 2012: Neil Cavuto, “Jimmy John’s Founder: Business Owners Unsure of the Future,” Fox News, October 15, 2012, http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/your-world-cavuto/2012/10/16/jimmy-johns-founder-business-owners-unsure-future.

  221 Not that you guys don’t have a legitimate gripe against this president. If Obama had fought harder for single-payer health care: Jon Stewart, “Post-Democalyptic World—Whine Country—Employee Benefits: Lacking Good Outsourcing Options, the Pizza and Coal Industries Cut Employee Benefits and Blame Obamacare,” The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, November 13, 2012, http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-november-13-2012/post-democalyptic-world—whine-country—employee-benefits.

  221 Caleb Melby of Forbes has graciously done the math on Obamacare’s cost to Papa John’s: Jillian Berman, “Papa John’s Obamacare Costs Are Far Less Than Price of Free Pizza Giveaway,” The Huffington Post, November 13, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/13/papa-johns-obamacare_n_2123207.html.

  223 Many, many, many Christians were praying and we really need to address that issue: James Dobson, “A Battle Cry to Defend America,” Dr. James Dobson’s Family Talk, November 16, 2012, http://www.drjamesdobson.org/Broadcasts/Broadcast?i=3be080bb-977f-475f-962f-9600ea4eb65c.

  224 He later maintained that Obama’s reelection is proof that we Americans have “turned our back on God”: Meredith Bennett-Smith, “Evangelist Franklin Graham Claims ‘Complete Economic Collapse’ May Be Needed to Fix America (video),” The Huffington Post, November 19, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/19/evangelist-franklin-graham-complete-economic-collapse-needed_n_2160769.html.

  224 There was the day the letter arrived from the insurance company, saying that our daughter’s lifetime cap had been lifted: Ezra Klein, “The Night Democrats Reclaimed ‘Obamacare,’” The Washington Post, September 4, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/04/the-night-democrats-reclaimed-obamacare/.

  16
. It’s Happened Again

  234 Most of us in America, including gun owners, agree on things that would stop the kind of carnage: Cory Booker, This Week with George Stephanopoulos, ABC News, December 23, 2012, http://abcnews.go.com/m/blogEntry?id=18050508&sid=77&cid=77.

  236 Historians are often asked what the Founders would think about various aspects of contemporary life: Jill Lepore, “The Lost Amendment,” The New Yorker, April 19, 2012, http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/04/the-second-amendment.html.

  236 37 If roads were collapsing all across the United States, killing dozens of drivers: Ezra Klein, “Twelve Facts About Guns and Mass Shootings in the United States,” The Washington Post, December 14, 2012, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/12/14/nine-facts-about-guns-and-mass-shootings-in-the-united-states/.

  237 Vice President Biden “is seriously considering measures backed by key law enforcement leaders”: Philip Rucker, “White House Weighs Broad Gun-Control Agenda in Wake of Newtown Shootings,” The Washington Post, January 5, 2013, http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-01-05/politics/36208875_1_gun-issue-brady-campaign-assault-weapons-ban.

  17. Bigot Christmas

  240 NOM, like the Family Research Council and Americans for Truth About Homosexuality: Evelyn Schlatter, “18 Anti-Gay Groups and Their Propaganda,” Southern Poverty Law Center, http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2010/winter/the-hard-liners.

  240 Suppose you were interested in promoting children’s well-being, and in particular, in addressing the problem of fatherlessness: John Corvino and Maggie Gallagher, Debating Same-Sex Marriage (New York: Oxford, 2012), 57 58.

  241 In a blowjob in The Washington Post—excuse me, in a profile: Monica Hesse, “Profile of Brian Brown, Executive Director of the National Organization for Marriage,” The Washington Post, August 28, 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/08/27/AR2009082704139_2.html.

  242 Under Brown’s leadership, NOM has linked—or has attempted to link—marriage rights for same-sex couples to child rape and crafted a plan: Lila Shapiro, “Same-Sex Marriage Debate: Racially Divisive NOM Memos Stir Controversy,” The Huffington Post, March 31, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/31/same-sex-marriage-debate_n_1392668.html.

  242 NOM under Brown has skirted campaign finance disclosure laws, misrepresented attendance at their rallies: Scott Wooledge, “NOM Steals Image from Obama Rally,” Daily Kos, October 25, 2011, http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/10/25/1030072/-NOM-Steals-Image-From-Obama-Rally#.

  248 Bullying is the strong picking on the weak, not the other way around: J.F., “Christians, Gays and Bullying: A Race to Take Umbrage,” The Economist, May 1, 2012, http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2012/05/christians-gays-and-bullying.

  249 The pope recently said that gay marriage is a threat to the survival of the human race: Posted by AmericansForTruthAH, “Savaging the Pope!,” YouTube, May 1, 2012, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chco0JkpL_A.

  251 My friend and colleague Dominic Holden did a story for The Stranger: Dominic Holden, “‘Why Do You Hate Me?’: What Happens When a Faggot Asks People Who Gave Time and Money to Support Anti-Gay Referendum 71 the Most Basic Question?,” The Stranger, September 3, 2009, http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/why-do-you-hate-me/Content?oid=2156227.

  255 It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables: “Mark Twain quotations—Bible,” Twain Quotes, http://www.twainquotes.com/Bible.html.

  257 Baptist minister Louie Giglio was invited to give the benediction at Barack Obama’s second inauguration: Natalie Jennings, “Louie Giglio Pulls out of Inauguration over Anti-Gay Comments,” The Washington Post, January 10, 2013, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-politics/wp/2013/01/10/louie-giglio-pulls-out-of-inaugural-over-anti-gay-comments/.

  258 59 In December of 2012, the pope granted an audience to Rebecca Kadaga, the Ugandan lawmaker: Dan Avery, “Pope Blessed Rebecca Kadaga, Who Promises to Pass Uganda’s ‘Kill The Gays’ Bill,” Queerty, December 14, 2012, http://www.queerty.com/pope-blessed-rebecca-kadaga-who-promises-to-pass-ugandas-kill-the-gays-b-20121214/.

  267 It is a routine lie of Christian apologetics that slavery in the Roman imperial period: Don M. Burrows, “Brian Brown’s Slavery Lie,” Nota Bene, August 30, 2012, http://www.donmburrows.com/2012/08/brian-browns-slavery-lie.html.

  268 Slaveholding theologians had little trouble in demonstrating that the Bible did sanction slavery: Elizabeth Fox-Genovese and Eugene D. Genovese, “The Divine Sanction of Social Order: Religious Foundations of the Southern Slaveholders’ World View,” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 55, no. 2 (1987): 211 34, http://jaar.oxfordjournals.org/content/LV/2/211.full.pdf+html?sid=1f23355b-9171-40ed-a1d0-46dc063902b2.

  271 An unbroken series of polls showed that a majority of Americans now supported marriage equality: Sara Gates, “Gay Marriage Support: 51 Percent of Americans Are in Favor of Marriage Equality, Poll Shows,” The Huffington Post, November 14, 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/14/gay-marriage-support-majority-americans-poll_n_2130371.html.

  271 As of this writing, the Supreme Court has taken up two cases challenging bans on gay marriage: “Editorial: Supreme Court Can’t Stop Marriage Equality,” The MetroWest Daily News, December 16, 2012, http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/editorials/x719506777/Editorial-Supreme-Court-can-t-stop-marriage-equality.

  272 According to the commenters on YouTube and at The New York Times, I won the debate: Mark Oppenheimer, “After Dinner, the Fireworks,” The New York Times, August 22, 2012, http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/garden/dan-savage-and-brian-brown-debate-gay-marriage-over-the-dinner-table.html?_r=0.

  274 A viewer of The 700 Club recently put this question to Pat Robertson: “If America was founded as a Christian nation, why did we allow slavery?”: Brian Tashman, “Pat Robertson: Ignore What the Bible Says About Slavery,” Right Wing Watch, July 9, 2012, http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/pat-robertson-ignore-what-bible-says-about-slavery.

  Permissions

  Excerpts from “Contraception’s Con Men” by Garry Wills, from The New York Review of Books, used by permission of The Wylie Agency, LLC.

  An excerpt from “Are Humans Monogamous or Polygamous?” by Daniel Engber, reprinted by permission of Slate.

  An excerpt from “Rules of Misbehavior” by Benjamin J. Dueholm, reprinted by permission of Washington Monthly.

  An excerpt from “No Surprise for Bisexual Men: Report Indicates They Exist” by David Tuller, reprinted by permission of The New York Times.

  An excerpt from “Rick Santorum’s Anal Sex Problem” by Stephanie Mencimer, reprinted by permission of Mother Jones.

  An excerpt from “Santorum Talks About Longtime Google Problem” by Steve Peoples, reprinted by permission of Roll Call.

  An excerpt from “Bombs Away” by Andrew Marantz, reprinted by permission of The New Yorker.

  An excerpt from “The Lost Amendment” by Jill Lepore, reprinted by permission of The New Yorker.

  An excerpt from “Twelve Facts About Guns and Mass Shootings in the United States” by Ezra Klein, reprinted by permission of The Washington Post.

  An excerpt from “Christians, Gays and Bullying: A Race to Take Umbrage” by J.F., reprinted by permission of The Economist.

  An excerpt from “Brian Brown’s Slavery Lie” by Don M. Burrows, reprinted by permission of the author.

  About the Author

  Dan Savage is the author of the syndicated column Savage Love, now also an iPhone app, and the editorial director of The Stranger, Seattle’s weekly newspaper. In addition to his frequent appearances on CNN, MSNBC, Real Time with Bill Maher, and The Colbert Report, Savage is a regular contributor to public radio’s This American Life. He is the author of Savage Love: Straight Answers from America’s Most Popular Sex Columnist; The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant; Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit o
f Happiness in America; and The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family. In September 2010, Dan Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, created the It Gets Better Project. Dan and Terry created the first It Gets Better video. Savage lives in Seattle, Washington, with his husband, Terry, and their son, D.J.

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  ALSO BY DAN SAVAGE

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  The Kid: What Happened After My Boyfriend and I Decided to Go Get Pregnant

  Skipping Towards Gomorrah: The Seven Deadly Sins and the Pursuit of Happiness in America

  The Commitment: Love, Sex, Marriage, and My Family

  It Gets Better: Coming Out, Overcoming Bullying, and Creating a Life Worth Living (ed.)