Dan Savage has offered hundreds of thousands of words of advice since he began his "Savage Love" column two decades ago. But the most important are these three:
It gets better.
Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, recorded an online video with that simple message in September 2010 in response to suicides by bullied gay teens. Whoever you are, they promised scared, isolated kids, your life will be better once you finish high school. They talked about their own bullying in school, coming out to their families, and how much love and acceptance eventually came into their lives.
(Pictured: Dan Savage, left, and Terry Miller. Photo courtesy of MTV.)
Since that video, thousands of people, from kids in small towns to movie stars -- to President Obama -- have recorded their own messages for the It Gets Better Project. Tonight, the message goes even wider with an MTV special.
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When Savage started his column in 1991 -- it has since led to books, an absurdly addictive podcast, and an advice show, "Savage U," soon to debut on MTV -- he was just trying to make people laugh. But his directness and comic delivery soon made him a champion for gay adoptions, marriage equality, and other human rights issues in need of a passionate, eloquent, and often hilarious spokesman.
Much of his comedy comes from skewering right-wing opponents: He orchestrated the Google problem that still stains Rick Santorum's name after the then-senator, in 2004, compared homosexuality to bestiality.
We talked to Savage about the MTV special, the "It Gets Better" video he rejected, and the deal he might make with Santorum if he wins the presidency and calls to ask for his name back.
"But there's not going to be a President Santorum," Savage said at the end of our interview. "Don't scare me like that. And if there is a President Santorum, he's going to have to call me in Canada, because that's where I'll have emigrated before Inauguration Day."
When you started a sex advice column, did you have any idea you might someday -- not to overstate it -- help kids find a will to live?
I didn't. When I started the column it was really kind of a lark. And when I started the column I wasn't giving advice to gay people. The joke for the first six to eight months was a gay guy giving advice on straight sex and pretending to be as disgusted by straight sex as so many straight people feel compelled to claim to be about gay sex. But then as the questions kept coming in, there were real questions, real problems, people were in real trouble. So then I sort of backed into having to give a shit. And having to really give advice. And it's become my accidental career.
