More Savage, Better and Sharper Than Ever.

CNN surprisingly pulled in Dan Savage for tonight's debate on Larry King Live moderated by Joy Behar and he kicked some serious bigoted ass: Rev. Harry Jackson and Rev. Jim Garlow.  On his side they also had San Fran major Newsom.  They originally advertised Cynthia Nixon who ended up being included via a pre-recorded interview (and was so eloquent and charming, btw, it made miss Sex and the City for a quick second) so I'm guessing Savage was a replacement for her.  But, oh, did he do good.  Unlike in his previous CNN appearance, he was more collected and sharper.  

After 40 minutes of back and forth, it was clear that there is no argument that the proponents of Prop 8 can bring that is not easily refutable (sanctity of marriage; tradition; majority rule); what is more complicated, even for Dan, is responding to the accusations of hostile behavior and rhetoric by the gay demonstrators towards members of that church and black people.  Faced with a logical refutal of the non-sensical arguments, anti-marriage folks are quick to point that out.  This is troubling and there has to be some sort of response to set the record straight.  HRC or LAMBDA or some other well funded organization should launch a nationwide campaign to clarify that this isn't an issue of race and it isn't an issue of religion.  It's an issue of basic human decency and that is not a zero sum game.

Savages Everywhere.

Can't not point out that the world has seemingly exploded with Dan Savage, which is awesome.  The guy is hard at work speaking out for our rights.  His segment on Colbert was hilarious, which isn't always the outcome no matter how good and witty an interviewee you are, given Colbert's slippery slope of ironic sarcasm.  The appearance on AC360 side-by-side with Tony Perkins, the personification of everything that is wrong with the Christian church, was much more heated and I felt aweful for him.  A funny post about those 2 appearances here.  Then there was his piece yesterday in the Times and his appearance at the protest last night.  Finally, a great post yesterday explaining why it took us until after Prop 8 was approved to get all riled up.  Props to Dan!