Dan Savage On Ireland's Panti Bliss's Amazing Speech

"Consider this post a thank you note to shitty bigot [Irish Times columnist] John Waters and shitty bigot Breda O’Brien and all the shitty bigots at the Iona Institute. Thank you for bringing Panti Bliss to our attention. Thanks to your stupidity and Rory 'Panti Bliss' O'Neill's eloquence, Panti has gained an international following. And if you shitty motherfuckers are dumb enough to sue Panti, know this: she not only has thousands of supporters in Ireland, she has thousands of new supporters all over the world. Myself included. And we will spread the word and we will raise money and we will call you shitty fucking homophobes without a moment's hesitation. Because you're a bunch of shitty fucking homophobes. So congrats, you dumb fucking haters. You made that Irish drag queen an international superstar—and if you are stupid enough to come after her, you've made her an international cause célèbre." - Dan Savage

Dan Savage Was Last Straw — Catholic Group Demands Bill Maher’s HBO Show Gets Canceled

Bill Maher is under fire after hosting LGBT activist, author, and comedian Dan Savage Friday night on his HBO show, “Real Time.” The Catholic League is a small but extremely wealthy and far-reaching self-appointed organization devoted to waging war on anyone who voices opposition to the Pope, the Vatican, or Catholicism itself — even if the opposition is critical of Roman Catholic pedophile priests.

On Monday, from his Park Avenue office in mid-town Manhattan, Catholic League president Bill Donohue issued a demand to HBO’s parent company, cable giant Time-Warner: “Cancel Bill Maher.”

“The board of directors at Time Warner cannot distance themselves from Bill Maher any longer,” Donohue bloviated. “On Friday night, Maher teed up Dan Savage, another anti-Catholic bigot. What happened was particularly vicious.”

“Maher commented on gay couples who adopt children, alleging that a Hawaiian bishop said these kids had a greater chance of committing suicide,” Donohue whined — not even addressing whether or not it was true. (Why is that, do you think?)

Here is how Savage responded: “That’s total bulls***. He’s confusing children of gay parents with children who are raped by Catholic priests. Sorry, I am just done being lectured about children and their safety by Catholic-f***ing bishops, priests, cardinals.” Shortly thereafter, Savage again remarked about “kiddie-f***ing Catholic priests.”

Donohue went on to note that the Catholic League (which is pretty much just Donohue and a tiny staff) is “sending to every member of Time Warner’s board of directors a copy of 54 anti-Catholic statements made by Bill Maher on TV [click here to read the report].”

You should actually read the list. Aside from being humorous, that the jokes can actually be made by Maher and Donohue is unable to refute those that aren’t just jokes, but real accusations, it’s extremely embarrassing for Donohue to advertise it at all.

Dan Savage’s response to Bill Maher’s comment about gay parents raising children was pretty epic, as we reported on it first thing Saturday morning:

After jokingly asking what gay sex is like, Maher brought up the marriage battle in Hawaii. He asked about Hawaii‘s Catholic Bishop Larry Silva’s false claim that children who grow up in gay homes “have a greater chance of committing suicide.”
“That’s total bullshit,” Savage responded. Bishop Silva is “confusing children who were raised by gay parents with children who were raped by Catholic priests.” He went on to complain about “being lectured about children and their safety by Catholic f*cking bishops, priests, cardinals.”

Of course, Time Warner will get inundated with emails from dutiful Catholics. And the response from the rest of America — including many lay Catholics who disagree with the Catholic Church’s abominable response to their pedophile priests problem and position on same-sex marriage and adoption — will merely be free advertising for HBO, Time Warner, and Bill Maher.

Dan Savage Goes Off on Catholic Priests, Alec Baldwin, and the Cheneys with Bill Maher

Dan Savage sat down with Bill Maher to talk about "buttloads" of gay stuff, including religious officials, like a priest, who testified in Hawaii that gay marriage will harm children.

Replies Savage:

 "He's confusing children who were raised by gay parents with children who were raped by Catholic priests."

 Savage also lays in to Mary Cheney and Heather Poe:

"Mary does a pretty good approximation of evil, however...They're wealthy dykes who until ten minutes ago couldn't give a flying f--k about the rights of same-sex couples in the state where they live or any other state. $2500 check to Mitt Romney in 2012. Voted for Mitt Romney in 2012...Romney was a thousand times worse than Liz and Mary wrote that f--ker a check."

The conversation then moves to Alec Baldwin and his hair-trigger homophobia.

Dan Savage Explains Why Stoli Is A Russian Vodka And Why The Russian Vodka Boycott Is Working

Dan Savage, Wednesday night appeared on Chris Hayes’ “All In” to rebut Hayes’ previous coverage of the Russian vodka boycott and to shed more light on what’s happening in Russia from historical terms. Vladimir Putin‘s war on gays has created a firestorm in the U.S. and other LGBT-friendly countries around the world, and is making the lead up to the 2014 Winter Olympics challenging for Russian leaders. But as Harvey Fierstein, Savage, and many others are trying to stress, the issue isn’t the Olympics, it’s the LGBT community in Russia that will be there whether or not, and before and after, the Olympics begin and end.

But Savage made clear — right from the words of the makers of Stolichnaya — why Stoli is a Russian vodka. And he also made clear, quoting Alexander Abad-Santos’s piece in The Atlantic, that “The Russian Vodka Boycott Is Working, Whether You Like It or Not.”

First, to all who claim Stoli is not a Russian vodka — and why it’s an appropriate target:

“The goal of the boycott is to target an iconic product and vodka is Russia’s most iconic product, to raise awareness around the world, which is what this vodka boycott called by activists in San Francisco and New York and Seattle has done,” Savage told Hayes.

“And what I really objected to in your coverage on Monday night is you said I called for a boycott of ‘Stoli, which is actually a Latvian vodka.’ Which is Stoli’s argument right now. They’re out there pushing that lie, and if I could read you something really briefly which is, Stolichnaya’s distributor in 2008 to Vanity Fair [said], ‘Stolichnaya as it is sold outside Russia is distilled in Russia and moved from Russia to Latvia where it’s put in bottles. There is nothing added, nothing taken away, no additions, no subtractions from the product that leaves Russia. Stolichnaya is the original authentic genuine Russian vodka brand made with genuine authentic Russia vodka from Russia.’ Period. That’s Stoli talking about Stoli, so it’s a legitimate target of a boycott.”

Savage also compared what’s happening in Russia now to pre-World War II Germany.

“We’re not comparing the situation right now in Russia to what went on — what happened to the Jews. What’s happening in Russia to LGBT people isn’t what happened to Jews in 1943, it’s what happened to them in 1933. People didn’t speak up at the volume they should have, and we’re speaking up now to try to prevent that catastrophe from unfolding.”

Watch:

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Dan Savage Jokes With Bill Maher, ‘I’m Going To Keep Inseminating My Husband’ To Make A Baby

Dan Savage never fails to deliver — and always delivers on-point commentary that serves to hit his critics and opponents where it hurts them the most. Last night, on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Savage sat across the table from radical right-wing Republican anti-tax, anti-choice activist Grover Norquist and former GOP Congressman Connie Mack of Florida, and told Maher, “I’m always telling people who say two men can’t make a baby, ‘Anything is possible for God.’ I’m going to keep inseminating my husband and keep my fingers crossed.”

The commentary was funny, but its effect on Tea Party darling Grover Norquist — the often behind-the-scenes activist whose support of George W. Bush went a long way in sending him to and keeping him in the White House — was priceless. This was Norquist’s expression at the moment Savage made his comment, and a split-second later, smiling uncomfortably — or in disgust, perhaps?

But the real point Savage was on hand to make was that the Supreme Court’s rendering unconstitutional DOMA — the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996 that banned the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages — means he can stop living in fear that his death (as he said, possibly at the hands of those who hate him, or,) in, say, a plane crash, would leave his husband and partner of fifteen years, Terry, and their son without his social security survivor benefits, and the estate tax would render his family financially devastated.

The partial end of DOMA means the federal government now has to recognize his marriage as legal and valid. By the way, listen for Norquist’s curious decision to decide to talk about school choice in reference to the Trayvon Martin case. Strange. Enjoy this excellent segment from Maher’s show — the rest of which was not his best, with the exception of MSNBC’s Rula Jebreal, who was exceptional.