cocksucking-accent:

xekstrin:

TW MENTION OF RAPE, TRANSPHOBIA, GENERAL ASSHATTERY

zeekubeast:

forgetpolitics:

1. Dan Savage hates trans people and uses transphobic slurs.

“Children have a right to some stability and constancy from the adults in their lives. Perhaps I’m a transphobic bigot, but I honestly think waiting a measly 36 months to cut your dick is a sacrifice any father should be willing to make for his 15-year-old son. Call me old-fashioned.

Unfortunately, your ex wasn’t willing to make that sacrifice (selfish tranny!), or it never occurred to him to make that sacrifice (stupid tranny!)…. If your son can’t deal with having his dad/mom/whatever around right now, support him and tell his dad/mom/whatever to leave the two of you alone for the time being.”

2. Dan Savage believes that bisexuals do not and should not exist.

“I’m not saying bi guys are bad people, or they don’t make great one-night stands. Bushes, bathhouses, and sleazy gay bars are crawling with bi guys. But if a guy wants more, he’ll have an easier time getting it from another gay man.”

3. Dan Savage has admonished women for not putting up with their partner’s sexual desires and has criticized female rape survivors’ stories.

“There the guy was, boned for you, and he was brave enough to put his desires out there, to make himself vulnerable (which is what the ladies are always saying they want, right?), and you lobbed the ol’ “What?!?” bomb at him and made him feel like a freak. Is it any wonder that he quickly moved on to “other things” and, one would hope, better sex partners?”

“I’m extremely sorry that you were raped, DRARS, although your baseless accusations of rape make me doubt you when you claim to be a survivor of rape. The feminist bloggers are going to accuse me of thought crimes: If a woman says she was raped then, by God, she was raped. (Tell it to the lacrosse team.) But if my reaction to your letter is a thought crime, I can only plead entrapment: I wouldn’t have had these illegal thoughts if you hadn’t sent me such a stupid letter in the first place… Finally, DRARS, I hereby withdraw my consent for you to read Savage Love. If you continue to read my column against my will, well, we all know what word to apply to your actions.”

4. Dan Savage thinks that racist gay white men are less of a threat to African-Americans than homophobic African-Americans are to gay people.

EDIT: The quote below is indeed Dan’s response to Prop 8 and black homophobia, I have added some more of the senseless shit that has spewed out of his mouth so that no one will be confused as to how much of an asshole he is:

“I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color…I’ll eat my shorts if gay and lesbian voters went for McCain at anything approaching the rate that black voters went for Prop 8.”

EDIT: Here are some more lovely gems from our resident asshole Dan Savage on his rampant hatred for everything not white, male, and gay:

5. Dan Savage thinks asexuals are secretly “fags”.

“I appreciate the feedback, Stephanie, and I’m sorry I offended you. But… um… I couldn’t help but think, as I read your letter, that your boyfriend is either a fool or a fag. But if it works for you guys—if a romantic relationship devoid of sexual attraction and activity works for you guys—then it works for you guys. Who am I to argue with success?”

6. Dan Savage is fatphobic.

“First off, LARDASS, you neglected to include a sign-off, forcing me to create one for you. I tried to create one that captured the spirit and tone of your letter, and I think I did pretty well… I am thoroughly annoyed at having my tame statements of fact—being heavy is a health risk; rolls of exposed flesh are unsightly—characterized as ‘hate speech.’”

EDIT: I’ve got a lot of requests for citations, so here they are. They get even worse, believe me — the sexual kink that Savage admonishes the woman for was because he believed it was totally ok for her boyfriend wanting to put his nutsack into her vagina. Because that is a totally unsurprising sexual desire to request for.

TRIGGER WARNING: These articles contain transphobic comments/slurs, victim-blaming, racism, hatred of all kinds and colors

1. Transphobia

2. Biphobia (Here’s another where he basically blames Bisexuals for their own oppression….yeah.)

3. Sexism (kink) / Sexism (victim-blaming)

4. Racism & Prop 8 (Here’s another bullshit article he did on the same topic)

5. Acephobia

6. Fat-shaming (Here’s a rant where he says that Iowa should ban fat marriage instead of banning gay marriage because that totally makes more sense)

NOW GO VOTE THIS SUCKER DOWN

Also he’s friends with Buck Angel isn’t that proof enough of his awfulness.

forgetpolitics:

1. Dan Savage hates trans people and uses transphobic slurs.

“Children have a right to some stability and constancy from the adults in their lives. Perhaps I’m a transphobic bigot, but I honestly think waiting a measly 36 months to cut your dick is a sacrifice any father should be willing to make for his 15-year-old son. Call me old-fashioned.

Unfortunately, your ex wasn’t willing to make that sacrifice (selfish tranny!), or it never occurred to him to make that sacrifice (stupid tranny!)…. If your son can’t deal with having his dad/mom/whatever around right now, support him and tell his dad/mom/whatever to leave the two of you alone for the time being.”

2. Dan Savage believes that bisexuals do not and should not exist.

“I’m not saying bi guys are bad people, or they don’t make great one-night stands. Bushes, bathhouses, and sleazy gay bars are crawling with bi guys. But if a guy wants more, he’ll have an easier time getting it from another gay man.”

3. Dan Savage has admonished women for not putting up with their partner’s sexual desires and has criticized female rape survivors’ stories.

“There the guy was, boned for you, and he was brave enough to put his desires out there, to make himself vulnerable (which is what the ladies are always saying they want, right?), and you lobbed the ol’ “What?!?” bomb at him and made him feel like a freak. Is it any wonder that he quickly moved on to “other things” and, one would hope, better sex partners?”

“I’m extremely sorry that you were raped, DRARS, although your baseless accusations of rape make me doubt you when you claim to be a survivor of rape. The feminist bloggers are going to accuse me of thought crimes: If a woman says she was raped then, by God, she was raped. (Tell it to the lacrosse team.) But if my reaction to your letter is a thought crime, I can only plead entrapment: I wouldn’t have had these illegal thoughts if you hadn’t sent me such a stupid letter in the first place… Finally, DRARS, I hereby withdraw my consent for you to read Savage Love. If you continue to read my column against my will, well, we all know what word to apply to your actions.”

4. Dan Savage thinks that racist gay white men are less of a threat to African-Americans than homophobic African-Americans are to gay people.

“I do know this, though: I’m done pretending that the handful of racist gay white men out there—and they’re out there, and I think they’re scum—are a bigger problem for African Americans, gay and straight, than the huge numbers of homophobic African Americans are for gay Americans, whatever their color.”

EDIT: Here are some more lovely gems from our resident asshole Dan Savage on his rampant hatred for everything not white, male, and gay:

5. Dan Savage thinks asexuals are secretly “fags”.

“I appreciate the feedback, Stephanie, and I’m sorry I offended you. But… um… I couldn’t help but think, as I read your letter, that your boyfriend is either a fool or a fag. But if it works for you guys—if a romantic relationship devoid of sexual attraction and activity works for you guys—then it works for you guys. Who am I to argue with success?”

6. Dan Savage is fatphobic.

“First off, LARDASS, you neglected to include a sign-off, forcing me to create one for you. I tried to create one that captured the spirit and tone of your letter, and I think I did pretty well… I am thoroughly annoyed at having my tame statements of fact—being heavy is a health risk; rolls of exposed flesh are unsightly—characterized as ‘hate speech.’”

theraptorwhomurderedlove:

hopelessly-romantic-cynic:

gaysagainstgaga:

hilarynyberg:

Hey y’all, you should check out deardansavage.com (an awesome project started by a few of my friends) :]

Come on people, Dan annoys me sometimes too, and I don’t like the way he gets trotted out on TV as the token homo while non-white-male perspectives never get the CNN invite. And sure, It Gets Better was a problematic, if well-intentioned effort. But all this pious Helvetica is giving me a headache. 

Also: this.

NO. Holy shit, no. That is bogus as fuck. No one has said that Dan Savage is “the worst enemy of the trans* community”, but you do not get to tell us who our enemies are. And Dan Savage does get to say whether or not the fight for the rights of trans* is over under any condition. Feeling entitled to make that statement shows he isn’t really interested in changing and has obviously not done any research since he wasn’t even aware that the t-word is a slur and acted like it was some big secret the mean trans* people kept from him so that he would fuck up. If being called out on your shit makes you decide to not be a vocal advocate for people you have privilege over, you aren’t an ally.

Furthermore, if you’re a bisexual (and I imagine polysexual/multisexual/pansexual) person, a fat person, a person of color, a person with mental disabilities (tw for slur), a rape victim, and/or an asexual person, then you’re in the same boat as trans* people with Dan Savage because he’s shit on those groups, too. He has never apologized for any of that; in fact, the times he has been called out, he has used that vicious wit to deny he did anything wrong. Dan Savage is not just “annoying”, he’s an oppressive douche-canoe, & if you’re not a thin, white, cisgender, monosexual, conventionally-attractive, allistic gay man who’s never been raped, Dan Savage doesn’t seem to much care if it gets better for you.

Honestly, the project is more optimistic than pious because I don’t think he’s willing to do better.

^ Reblogging for the commentary. 

queerinsurrection:

transcreature:

iragray:

• Here he put someone down for being poor and insinuated it was some form of punishment since the OP doesn’t like that Buck is transmisogynistic or classist.
• Here he posted a video of queer people of color as a token of his anti-racism?
• [TW: CISSEXISM AND BODY SHAMING] Here is a screencap of a tweet he posted in response to someone who pointed out that his using someone’s personal post-op photos as a reason that he didn’t want to get surgery was hurtful. On his blog, Buck lies to his readers and says he was only talking about his own body when that’s obviously not that case when he says “it is not ok to want that :)” [TW: Hardcore cissexism and bottom shaming]
• Here he tells Village Voice and by virtue all trans* people, that fundraising for surgery is not what real men do. “You wanna be a man? Act like a man.” Tell me, Buck, what if I don’t “want to be a man”? Or you know how about the notion that I already am one since I identify as such?
• Here’s a quote of Buck Angel defending Dan Savage’s blatant cissexism. Here’s evidence of Savage’s cissexism.
• Here’s Buck insinuating a threat to a queer person of color for calling him out on racism and classism. Tell us, Buck, get you into trouble how?
• Here’s Buck telling me to grow up after he said I should do more for the trans* community.

I was going to isolate it to bottom surgery result insults, but it’s important to me that folks who look up to him know this. Because I looked up to him, because it’s easy to look up to someone who is trans*, jerk or not, simply because there are virtually no trans* people in the limelight. Not because it’s the worst thing in the world to make mistakes. A lot of us accidentally perpetuate oppression. It doesn’t make it okay at all, but we learn and grow while accepting the fact that we are indeed capable of doing such things. This list serves as an example of the fact that Buck doesn’t care so long as Buck is right. This would be a completely different post if Buck didn’t incessantly derail folks when they call him out.

Please be aware that Buck has in the past linked to people’s blogs on his Twitter alongside language that portrays anyone who calls him out as taking part in harassment so as to incite hate mail. I want to also be clear that some of the messages I received in response to this endeavor were cis folks cissplaining me by telling me to fight bigger demons. The bigger demon being cissplaining? Okay then! I say this as a warning to those who are triggered by these things.

If you have anything to add, please reblog and add links (if you’d like). Be sure to add trigger warnings. This post was a little rushed, since he seems to think that I have all of the time in the world for such things.

As a community, I think it’s really important that we start speaking back against people in the communities who have largely made themselves the self proclaimed “leaders” of the trans and LGBT movements. Buck Angel does not speak for the majority of the trans community and consistently says things which hurt and shame those less privileged than him. He is not a trans leader because trans people have elected him and supported him to become one, he is a self proclaimed trans activist because he has shit tons of privilege which have given him to opportunity to get a ton of cis people and privileged trans folks to like him. I don’t like to criticize activists just for having privilege, just because someone is more privileged doesn’t mean they can’t help others, but they need to recognize their position and learn how their privilege is fucking over other people in the trans community.

People who claim they are our allies but act otherwise are sometimes the most dangerous enemies of all. Buck Angel, along with other “activists” like Dan Savage, rationalize the oppression of marginalized trans people and use their own privileged experiences to fuck the rest of us over. They’re not really interested in helping the majority of the trans community, they are out there to make money and a name for themselves in their careers. They spectacularize their own identities while at the same time do things which hurt those in less privileged positions.

It would be one thing if these people who put themselves on pedestals for the queer and trans communities accepted that they are not always right and will apologize when their politics are fucked up. That’s what real activists should do because they realize that their politics are about helping others and the community, not about ALWAYS BEING RIGHT. If Buck Angel and Dan Savage were less worried about their careers, their mainstream cis audience ratings, and their MTV shows, then maybe they would find some fucking humbleness if their actions instead of tearing down everyone who disagrees with them (it looks like Dan Savage is still pissed off about being called out on his transphobic/cissexist remarks and even seems to think it’s not that big of a deal when other cis people say it either). They will never learn and as a community we need to stop supporting them.

They may point out some enemy they call more sinister, like anti-gay republican candidates, and I agree that they are horrible people and should not be in elected positions, but hey at least they’re honest about being my enemies. Buck Angel and Dan Savage claim to be our allies but in the end they will throw us under the bus to to further his own careers and no one will even fucking notice because they believe “trans activists” could do no wrong to the trans community. This happens to trans people all the fucking time in queer activists communities, and when we complain, we are either ignored, discounted as “crazy” or “insane”, or told that we are “dividing the community”.

No, so fuck you Buck Angel, we are not dividing the community, you are! When your politics don’t include people of color, don’t include poor trans folks, don’t include non-binary folks, don’t include trans women, don’t include a multitude of identities and positions that you will never experience, you justify our oppression and marginalization and you won’t even fucking take up the responsibility for it.

Buck Angel is an empty figurehead for the trans community that is really there because he’s been able to make a career with a cis audience. The trans community should just drop his ass, stop supporting him, and move on to find the real leaders of our movement who are humble enough to admit when they’re wrong and continually work to have better and more inclusive politics.

I’m not gonna be surprised if this post shows up on one of Buck Angel’s and Dan Savages blogs, along with some adjectives describing me as crazy or a moron, so that they can stick their followers on me and the people they pay to improve their media relations. But wait, I thought Dan Savage was against cyber-bullying, or is he only against it when it makes him money? Otherwise, it would appear it’s free game for these bullies to say whatever they want and defend it as free speech and being against censorship.

This is an incredibly important topic, something that we should bring to our communities both on and offline. Just to be transparent, I am not part of the trans community and know very little about Buck Angel, but I am able to resonate with this analysis on its core elements of representation, power, privilege, and feminist pedagogy/ethics.

I highlighted transcreature’s pieces that struck me because they not only deconstruct the ways in which power is operating for these self-proclaimed leaders of the trans/queer community(s), but they also highlight ethical questions for all of us as organizers and activists. Firstly, what does it mean that Buck Angel and Dan Savage are SO DEFENSIVE about their political stances and actions, especially in the realm of the cybersphere? For me—and this is purely speculative—it signals a ridiculous sense of entitlement to represent a voice of some sort of supposed homogeneous “community” (LGBTQQIA alphabet soup bullshit), and/or a self-proclaimed entitlement to an omnipotence that justifies their positions of power/privilege. That’s some scary napoleon-complex shit right there, but it’s symptomatic of some sort of fucked up ideology. It’s hard to pin-point the ideology exactly, but my gut feeling is that it is a result of neoliberalism and the commodification of social justice work (non-profit industrial complex, ethical consumerism, the “green revolution”, etc.) which we all have been subjected to. To put it quite bluntly—which transcreature has done incredibly well—when activism is profitable and trendy, you create hierarchies of power/privilege that (re)produce oppression in both subtle and harsh ways. When your livelihood (aka, your job) relies so heavily on you being correct, proper, and a good representative / figurehead, you have every reason to use your own power and resources to crush those who say otherwise, even if they’re right. This isn’t to justify their actions, but to maybe give some insight in to how violent neoliberalism/capitalism/Napoleon-complexes is, and how much work it takes to undo and unlearn these violent frameworks of thinking.

The effect of this neoliberal(ist) narcissism (and I think it’s safe to label this as such) is that people with lower amounts of privilege get thrown under the bus. This logic is important, because it can extend to ourselves and our own work. Our own egos create hierarchies which can be oppressive to folks in multiple ways: Dan Savage and Buck Angel are spectacularized versions of what all of us do all of the time. I think it’s important to remember this when we see things that we can very clearly call out as fucked up or wrong, Dan Savage and Buck Angel should remind us how being narcissistic, privileged, and self-righteous can silence the disenfranchised voice(s), destroy moments of education and coalition building, and ultimately reproduce hierarchies of oppression and power in our own spaces and communities.