Students protest keynote speaker at Pride Week
October 10, 2013
A swarm of students armed with posters gathered on the side of the Union Ballroom Wednesday night to protest the selection of the keynote speaker for LGBT Pride Week.
Dan Savage, a well-known sex advice columnist and LGBT rights activist, spoke in the Ballroom Wednesday night, offering advice in response to questions from the crowd.
As students and enthusiasts filed into the Union, student protesters crammed around tables by the reception desk, scribbling out controversial quotes from Savage’s speeches and column “Savage Love” and slogans denouncing him as a racist and misogynist. The protesters lined the Ballroom wielding their signs before the program and sat on the steps on the edge of the room while Savage spoke.
Ashley Willingham, a senior in theater and a member of this year’s Pride Week planning committee, said Savage was chosen because of his activism on behalf of the LGBT community.
“Even though he is controversial, he has done things for the community, like marriage equality, family equality and the ‘It Gets Better’ campaign,” Willingham said.
The campaign, which Savage founded in 2010, combats LGBT youth bullying, but members of the Honors College Queer Activism and Social Justice Think Tank said his work in this area and many others is nothing less than ironic.
The students argued that while Savage speaks out loudly for LGBT rights, he is exclusionary.
“He speaks out against bullying, but he’s a bully himself,” said Kathy Tran, a junior in history who made posters with other students before the event.
Emilio Manuel Camu, a senior in communication, agreed.
“He’s a self-proclaimed leader of the LGBT movement … But he really only speaks for gay, white, affluent males,” Camu said. “When does it get better? Who does it get better for?”
Tran was very disappointed with the selection of Savage as keynote speaker.
“I think it’s absolutely terrible, because we’re using our student fees to bring him in,” she said. “It’s a way of promoting that. We want other voices to be heard. For him to be heard and not other people, it’s kind of a push back on the LGBT movement.”
Many protesters thought Savage was a poor choice for the keynote, because he only defends one identity within the LGBT movement. They said his advocacy for the white gay male drowns out and squelches other voices, which runs contrary to the theme for this year’s Pride Week, “Pride has Many Voices.”
“As a queer person myself, I wouldn’t ever want to use any privilege I have over any other group, which is exactly what he does,” said George Zamantakis, a sophomore in gender studies and English. “He uses his white privilege and his male privilege to belittle others, and I just feel that is entirely wrong when we are all humans. We’re connected through that human bond, and … I feel it is important to empower voices.”
Savage often draws crowds of both fans and protesters, so he was not surprised by the student protesters on the edge of the Union Ballroom, though he didn’t expect them to be LGBT advocates.
“Sometimes there are protests, sometimes they are the conservative and the religious groups, which is frankly what I expected in Utah,” Savage said during his lecture.
He added that he had no agenda coming to the U and that he had already apologized for many of the quotes cited by the student protesters and that many were taken out of context.
As a member of the LBGT community, I have to say that Dan Savage has been a pretty divisive person, and was probably not the best person to invite to speak at the campus. It makes me wonder if the sponsors really checked out who he was.
Dan Savage brought massive attention to the issue of gay youth commiting suicide. He’s really not that divisive outside of certain excessively politically correct LGBT groups.
Sure, if you’re totally okay with pretending that bisexual people and trans people aren’t part of LGBT, but then you’re really just left with LG.
How, in any way, did what I say leave out bisexual or transexual people? If you actually bothered to read his articles or listen to his radio show you would find he has brought on many transexual, bisexual and pansexual guests to talk about their own issues and confront him on how they feel he’s slighted them. If yo bothered to do some research rather than just joining in the group mentality condemnation you might know that.
He has never retracted the scummy things he said, and he still repeats them when he gets the chance. And everyone knows that “excessively politically correct” is bigot-code for “actually caring about bigotry.”
What “scummy” things do you think he should retract. No, sometimes “politically correct” means “eccessive sensitivity and refusal to see anything outside of your narrow viewpoint.” Now, find these “scummy” things, listen to them in context and tell me how they are so horrible.
Savage leaves out the B and the T. Learn to read. And he’s never apologized to either community. Pardon my “political correctness,” but as a bisexual woman I like to be represented by LGBT rights activists.
I do read. I also listen to Dan Savage’s shows before I go off the deep end talking about things I haven’t really looked into. He’s also done more to educate about LGBT, including the B and T than any of these academics have done. And these academics do nothing to help the transgendered people who are not intellectuals. The transgendered people I work with think you and your politically correct gender studies people are naive and humorless.
What did he say?
I’m pretty comfortable with the T being left out of LG. I like my penis thank you very much. If you don’t, that’s fine, but we have virtually no civil rights struggles in common, nor should we. T needs to go its own separate way, instead of holding back the LGB movement.
Stonewall is a piece of trans history, and the annual celebration of it is now known as LGBT Pride. And who cares about your penis? What a dickhead thing to say.
And those trans people were street kids. They weren’t sheltered, humorless gender studies students who sit in judgment on everything without actually taking the time to find out what’s actually going on.
As a member of the LBGT community, I have to say that Dan Savage has been a pretty divisive person, and was probably not the best person to invite to speak at the campus. It makes me wonder if the sponsors really checked out who he was.
Dan Savage brought massive attention to the issue of gay youth commiting suicide. He’s really not that divisive outside of certain excessively politically correct LGBT groups.
Sure, if you’re totally okay with pretending that bisexual people and trans people aren’t part of LGBT, but then you’re really just left with LG.
How, in any way, did what I say leave out bisexual or transexual people? If you actually bothered to read his articles or listen to his radio show you would find he has brought on many transexual, bisexual and pansexual guests to talk about their own issues and confront him on how they feel he’s slighted them. If yo bothered to do some research rather than just joining in the group mentality condemnation you might know that.
He has never retracted the scummy things he said, and he still repeats them when he gets the chance. And everyone knows that “excessively politically correct” is bigot-code for “actually caring about bigotry.”
What “scummy” things do you think he should retract. No, sometimes “politically correct” means “eccessive sensitivity and refusal to see anything outside of your narrow viewpoint.” Now, find these “scummy” things, listen to them in context and tell me how they are so horrible.
Savage leaves out the B and the T. Learn to read. And he’s never apologized to either community. Pardon my “political correctness,” but as a bisexual woman I like to be represented by LGBT rights activists.
I do read. I also listen to Dan Savage’s shows before I go off the deep end talking about things I haven’t really looked into. He’s also done more to educate about LGBT, including the B and T than any of these academics have done. And these academics do nothing to help the transgendered people who are not intellectuals. The transgendered people I work with think you and your politically correct gender studies people are naive and humorless.
What did he say?
I’m pretty comfortable with the T being left out of LG. I like my penis thank you very much. If you don’t, that’s fine, but we have virtually no civil rights struggles in common, nor should we. T needs to go its own separate way, instead of holding back the LGB movement.
Stonewall is a piece of trans history, and the annual celebration of it is now known as LGBT Pride. And who cares about your penis? What a dickhead thing to say.
And those trans people were street kids. They weren’t sheltered, humorless gender studies students who sit in judgment on everything without actually taking the time to find out what’s actually going on.
Dan Savage is a strong voice. He has never “declared himself” a spokesman for all gay people and he’s not exclusionary. The people protesting probably don’t listen to him. And the only sign I can read clearly, his statement that every dead gay kid is a victory for the FRC is exactly right. The FRC is a virulently anti-gay group.
I fear for the future when I see people majoring in gender studies. Gender studies is such a cult and completely based on logical fallicies. And as a degree it’s even more useless than an English or Philosophy Major.
For the record, degrees in English are useful. People with degrees in English are employable and find jobs. I’ve always found it amusing that the sort of comment that gets made by third-rate standup comics (that is, not exactly someone with a lucrative career) gets taken seriously. Look at the stats and then don’t look down on those people with degrees in English. But you might want to raise funds for career counseling for the Architecture and Divinity students.
Yep, I have an English degree, and my resume backs up what you say, Jaidit
Dan Savage is a strong voice. He has never “declared himself” a spokesman for all gay people and he’s not exclusionary. The people protesting probably don’t listen to him. And the only sign I can read clearly, his statement that every dead gay kid is a victory for the FRC is exactly right. The FRC is a virulently anti-gay group.
I fear for the future when I see people majoring in gender studies. Gender studies is such a cult and completely based on logical fallicies. And as a degree it’s even more useless than an English or Philosophy Major.
For the record, degrees in English are useful. People with degrees in English are employable and find jobs. I’ve always found it amusing that the sort of comment that gets made by third-rate standup comics (that is, not exactly someone with a lucrative career) gets taken seriously. Look at the stats and then don’t look down on those people with degrees in English. But you might want to raise funds for career counseling for the Architecture and Divinity students.
Yep, I have an English degree, and my resume backs up what you say, Jaidit
Also, it looks like all the protestors are white.
Also, it looks like all the protestors are white.
Which campus was this on?
Last sentence of the article, “He added that he had no agenda coming to the U”
Which campus was this on?
Last sentence of the article, “He added that he had no agenda coming to the U”
Having spoken with the protesters and many others after the speech, I’ve yet to hear any convincing evidence of Dan’s transphobia, biphobia, racism, or sexism (with all these phobias he’s certainly a busy bigot, isn’t he?). Every quote I’ve heard (or read on cardboard) is either taken completely out of context, doesn’t take into account sarcasm, or is completely irrelevant to the protester’s claim (such as the “dead gay kids” quotation). When pressed for specifics it became obvious that the protesters don’t actually listen to Dan’s podcast or read his column, otherwise they would be aware of Dan’s often comedic approach to certain issues.
But if they say the word “privilege” a bunch of times it makes them look super socially aware, yo!
Having spoken with the protesters and many others after the speech, I’ve yet to hear any convincing evidence of Dan’s transphobia, biphobia, racism, or sexism (with all these phobias he’s certainly a busy bigot, isn’t he?). Every quote I’ve heard (or read on cardboard) is either taken completely out of context, doesn’t take into account sarcasm, or is completely irrelevant to the protester’s claim (such as the “dead gay kids” quotation). When pressed for specifics it became obvious that the protesters don’t actually listen to Dan’s podcast or read his column, otherwise they would be aware of Dan’s often comedic approach to certain issues.
But if they say the word “privilege” a bunch of times it makes them look super socially aware, yo!
Bunch of PC goofballs aiming anger at the wrong target. Idiots.
Bunch of PC goofballs aiming anger at the wrong target. Idiots.