Theory and fact

[yendi]

Theory: The "It Gets Better" campaign is Dan Savage's attempt to karmically balance everything else he does to make things worse.

Fact: The amount of good to come out of the IGB campaign (which most certainly is a good thing, in general) isn't even close to enough to strike that karmic balance.

Comments

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

I think he has a point. If hes a gay dude, and he thinks bisrxuals can hide easier than he can, why shouldnt he be mad? Its his opinion.

Hes not outing them, right? Hes just saying they shouldnt hide, hes got every right to that opinion.

[amokk]

He's not mad, he's victim blaming. "It's your own fault for being in the closet, if you'd just come out, everyone would totally accept you!" It's bullshit, he of all people should know it's bullshit, yet he keeps spouting it.

So as long as he's not "outing them" it's ok for him to spew stupid bile? Interesting...

[marlowe1.livejournal.com]

Besides the fact that neo_prodigy is easily insulted, I don't really see why this is some sort of evidence concerning any prejudice on the part of Dan Savage. Seems more like evidence that the bisexual community is full of the easily insulted and thin-skinned.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Savage *has* said some pretty astonishingly stupid things over the years. I wouldn't go anywhere near so far as to say he's been a net negative, though.

[radiumhead.livejournal.com]

He usually applogizes, if he thinks he was wrong.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

He does! And sometimes he doesn't think he's wrong, *and is still wrong*.

But I'm willing to accept that.

[not-hothead-yet.livejournal.com]

I've never in my life heard of the Bisexual community complaining that "we're the most oppressed"

I have, however, heard and read wonderful long thought-provoking lectures about how being bisexual in a primarily homosexual atmosphere usually gets a negative reaction which carries many tut-tuts. Savage doesn't like anyone else bitching about oppression which is really the essence of neo-prodigy's complaint as well as many many other people. Savage shows his White male hawt privilege every time he opens his mouth and tells someone else who isn't white male and hawt to stop bitching. That is the upshot of where Savage stands. Its annoying at first because he'd done some interesting and positive things, but if you're a member of a group that's he's consistantly told to be quiet cuz the while gay males are talking then you get pretty pissed eventually.

You aren't a member of any of those groups. Neither is Savage. Being gay does not give him the right to be the oppression police. He is entitled to his opinion but its contrary to the causes he pretends to promote to be so flippantly exclusionary.

[ex-gnomicut.livejournal.com]

the bisexual community is full of the easily insulted and thin-skinned.

You mean, like every community of humans in the world ever?

Dan Savage has a repulsive history of comments about bisexual people (http://www.afterelton.com/oysters-04-28-2011-dan-savage-biphobic), and he has used his column as a soapbox to inform gay people not to have relationships or sex with bisexual people. His new insistence that some bisexual teenagers grow up to be bisexual adults is just that: new. As recently as last year he was claiming that science shows there's no such thing as bisexual men.

I don't think it makes bisexual folks particularly easily insulted or thin-skinned that we find him to be a mixed blessing at best.

(Interestingly, his loathing is primarily for bisexual folks seeking same-sex relationships. He doesn't seem to have any problems with bisexual folks in opposite sex relationships, primarily because, I'm pretty sure, he thinks we are all straight. Except the chicks, but Savage's opinions about female sexuality are as screwed up as his opinions about bisexuality.)

[ultra-lilac.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I thought he made some pretty fair points, and I am an easily insulted and thin-skinned bisexual.

There's no such thing as karmic balance. There's a big old baby being thrown out with the bathwater if we refuse to acknowledge any worth in people who don't agree with our opinions 100%

[tanyad.livejournal.com]

Which is why a friend and I started the We Got Your Back Project which focuses on POC, Trans and Bi youth.

Dan Savage can DIAF asap as far as I'm concerned. See my WP post on it yesterday: http://cypheroftyr.wordpress.com/2011/06/27/dear-dan-savage-just-stop-talking-about-bisexuals-its-clear-you-know-nothing-about-us/