If nothing else, Dan Savage has proven that he could get better. There’s no question that his work has perpetuated classism, adultism, and transphobia.
As educators, we never want to throw anyone away. We’re committed to meeting people where they are at and working together towards a future for everyone. We do not mean to attack Dan Savage on a personal level, to deem him evil or forever oppressive. As he himself has said, he has “had a journey on trans issues,” and we hope that he will continue to work towards recognizing the privilege to fight oppression.
That said, we also demand the very best for our communities. While we hold patience for Dan Savage as an individual trying to sort through oppression, we have no tolerance for him as a representative or a leader. As an extremely visible queer figure, his actions and words often perpetuate violence against the very people he is representing. His role as a representative isn’t something that he can choose not to do, it’s not a role that he can contest. For many, he’s the only conduit into the queer world, the only example of what a queer person might look like. Universities looking to pay heed to queer communities often turn to him, paying $10,000 for him to tell students, in not so many words, that it’s ok to use words like “tranny” and “shemale,” that you shouldn’t be tricked by people who profess to be bisexual, that young people should wait patiently for it to get better.
In this respect, as a representational figure, we have no patience for him to work out his issues. Frankly, we already hear enough of that bullshit every day, and we don’t need to hear it from another white, monied, able-bodied adult cis man with a sex column and a microphone. Dan Savage, you do not speak for us.
Posts tagged "lgbt"
"Sexual activity has absolutely no place in the military”? That will be a surprise to the men and women, of every orientation, who love, marry, and become parents while serving. We have an all-volunteer military whose health relies on its strong ties to civilian life — not a praetorian guard of eunuchs. Does Santorum think that “the military” is a collection of battle scenes in an action movie? Surely not; his father worked for the Veterans Administration, and so he must know better. He also ought to know that there is no “special privilege” here, just the possibility of serving without the special obligation of lying, and the same knowledge other soldiers have that the person they love most might be able to be handed a folded flag if they die. Or is the word “gay” so strong for Santorum that it blotted out the word “soldier"
