Dan Savage, widely syndicated sex columnist and co-founder of the “It Gets Better” Project for the prevention of suicide among LGBT youth, spoke at Union South Monday night as part of the Wisconsin Union Directorate’s Distinguished Lecture Series.
Savage’s speech took place in the form of an hour-and-a-half-long question-and-answer session with questions submitted anonymously by the audience beforehand, a style which he is well known for.
Perhaps equally well known is his frank and often irreverent approach to talking about sex, relationships and love. During his speech, this open approach kept the audience laughing as he answered questions ranging from how to introduce sex toys into a relationship to his opinion of “Fifty Shades of Grey.”
One message Savage highlighted was that people of all sexual orientations can benefit from creating a sexual environment that is safe, inclusive, non-judgmental and values sexual activity that both partners enjoy over activity that society has prescribed as the “real” way to have sex.
Savage said straight couples can learn from homosexuals about being more communicative about what they want during sex.
“We are better at sex because we communicate, because we are forced to communicate in a way that straight people aren’t forced to,” Savage said. “Many straight people do communicate, but all queer people are compelled to. And nothing makes sex better than good communication.”
Questions also addressed topics pertinent to Savage’s experience as a political advocate. Savage called for a continuation of the fight for rights in all areas where homosexuals are oppressed, both in America—especially in regards to discrimination against same-sex military couples—and in other countries, like Jamaica, where violence against queer people is used to make a statement against first-world nations.
“Even if we get to a place where we’ve won full civil equality, there will still be a fight,” Savage said.
Savage answered questions for the rest of his speech and promised to publish several of the questions he did not have time to answer in a special Wisconsin edition of his “Savage Love” column in coming months.
