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With St. Valentine’s Day coming up, love and sex may be on people’s minds.
Tonight, University of Idaho students will have the opportunity to have some of those tensions professionally addressed.
Dan Savage, writer of the sex column “Savage Love ,” and editorial director for the Seattle-based alternative newspaper The Stranger, will speak at 7 p.m. today in the Administration Building auditorium.
There will be no admission charge.
The one-hour discussion will include a brief formal presentation by Savage and will mainly follow a Q-and-A format.
“His presentation will be interactive with students and participants,” said ASUI Center for Volunteerism and Social Action coordinator, Josh Dean. “He will answer questions and address them in front of the crowd.”
Students with questions for Savage can ask them in person or submit them anonymously on a three-by-five card before the show.
“He’s very open and blunt with his answers, he doesn’t scoot around issues,” Dean said. “His approach at different topics is something that students can relate with.”
Savage has been brought to UI by a cooperative effort between the Core Curriculum, the Women’s Center, and the Volunteerism and Social Action Office.
The idea to invite Savage stemmed from discussions by the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender) event planning committee.
“This week is the 11th annual observance of Freedom to Marry Week, so we’re excited,” said Women’s Center program adviser, Rebecca Rod. “The issue is about what complications and factors are related to gay marriage. Our discussion will center on that.”
Savage’s column is nationally syndicated and according to Rod, covers topics ranging from the mundane to the outrageous. Savage is also an avid gay rights activist, and has published several books on his relationship advice as well as his personal decisions as a homosexual man in the Northwest.
“I think what he will bring to this is a more inclusive atmosphere, since he is gay himself,” Rod said. “… When you live your life as a sexual minority, it gives you sort of a wider view of things. You have a way of talking to a group that is more inclusive.”
Savage has published four books, including “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.”
“The Commitment” follows Savage’s decision to marry his partner when it became legal in the city of Seattle. “The Kid” focuses on the couple’s decision to adopt their young son.
In 1991, Savage helped a co-worker at a Madison, Wis. video store move to Seattle to establish The Stranger. The first Savage Love column was printed in The Stranger that year.
In an attempt to reclaim a derogatory slur, the column answered readers’ concerns to the salutation, “hey faggot.”
In 1999, Savage terminated the heading, as he felt that readers were confusing it as the name of the column.
In 2000, Savage faced some minor legal trouble when he posed as a campaign supporter for the allegedly homophobic Republican presidential candidate, Gary Bauer.
His column reflected on his licking of doorknobs, staplers, pens and coffee cups in an attempt to transmit his flu virus to those working in the Iowa campaign office.
Because he had falsely claimed to have registered and voted in Iowa, he was charged with voter fraud.
He served a reduced sentence of 50 hours community service after admitting that some of the article was fictitious and pleading guilty to a lesser charge.
Savage has used his column to make bold and sometimes graphic political statements about those he feels are standing in the way of gay rights, including Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum in 2003.
In addition to writing his column, Savage is now the editorial director of The Stranger.
He is also active in theater, directing plays such as “Keenan Hollahan.”
“Are students interested in relationships? It’s definitely a subject on every student’s mind,” Rod said.
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