"Bullying" is the New Fad; It's Also the New Tactic

[Townhallsavoy]

As many as 100 high school students walked out of a national journalism conference after an anti-bullying speaker began cursing, attacked the Bible and reportedly called those who refused to listen to his rant “pansy assed.”
The speaker was Dan Savage, founder of the “It Gets Better” project, an anti-bullying campaign that has reached more than 40 million viewers with contributors ranging from President Obama to Hollywood stars. Savage also writes a sex advice column called “Savage Love.”
Savage, and his husband, were also guests at the White House for President Obama’s 2011 LGBT Pride Month reception. He was also invited to a White House anti-bullying conference.
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Savage was supposed to be delivering a speech about anti-bullying at the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. But it turned into an episode of Christian-bashing.
Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California, was among several thousand people in the audience. He said they thought the speech was one thing – but it turned into something else.
“I thought this would be about anti-bullying,” Tuttle told Fox news. “It turned into a pointed attack on Christian beliefs.”
Tuttle said a number of his students were offended by Savage’s remarks – and some decided to leave the auditorium.
“It became hostile,” he said. “It felt hostile as we were sitting in the audience – especially towards Christians who espouse beliefs that he was literally taking on.”
Tuttle said the speech was laced with vulgarities and “sexual innuendo not appropriate for this age group.” At one point, he said Savage told the teenagers about how good his partner looked in a speedo.
The conservative website CitizenLink was the first to report about the controversy. They interviewed a 17-year-old girl who was one of students who walked out of the auditorium.
“The first thing he told the audience was, ‘I hope you’re all using birth control,’” she told CitizenLink. “he said there are people using the Bible as an excuse for gay bullying, because it says in Leviticus and Romans that being gay is wrong. Right after that, he said we can ignore all the (expletive deleted) in the Bible.”
As the teenagers were walking out, Tuttle said that Savage heckled them and called them “pansy asses.”The executive director of the National Scholastic Press Association provided Fox News with joint statement from the Journalism Education Association that was sent to members – after a number of people complained about Savage’s remarks.
“We appreciate the level of thoughtfulness and deliberation regarding Dan Savage’s keynote address,” the NSPA wrote. “some audience members who felt hurt by his words and tone decided to leave in the middle of his speech, and to this, we want to make our point very clear: While as a journalist it’s important to be able to listen to speech that offends you, these students and advisers had simply reached their tolerance level for what they were willing to hear.”
The NSPA said they did not have a prior transcript of Savage’s speech and that wish “he had stayed more on target for the audience of teen journalists.” They also said it provided a “teachable moment” for students.
As for Savage’s attack on people of faith?
“While some of his earlier comments were so strongly worded that they shook some of our audience members, it is never the intent of JEA or NSPA to let students get hurt during their time at our conventions,” they wrote.
However, not once did the NSPA or the JEA offer any apologies to the students or faculty advisors or anyone else in attendance.
Candi Cushman, who writes a blog on CitizenLink, noted the irony.
“Using profanity to deride the bible – and then mocking the Christian students after they left the room — is obviously a form of bullying and name-calling,” she wrote. “This illustrates perfectly what we’ve been saying all along: Too many times in the name of ‘tolerance,’ Christian students find their faith being openly mocked and belittled in educational environments.”
Tuttle said that he “felt duped” by the event. “There were Christian schools who went to the conference. To have this happen was disappointing and shocking.”
And for some of his students – they felt like the anti-bullying activist was in fact – the bully.
The NSPA said they should have done a better job preparing schools for what to expect.
Here’s the full statement provided by the NSPA and JEA:
“We appreciate the level of thoughtfulness and deliberation regarding Dan Savage’s keynote address at the JEA/NSPA spring convention in Seattle. Logan and I have had the opportunity, both in Seattle and by email, to hear from advisers who are passionately against and passionately supportive of the choice to invite him to speak.
Many who expressed concern said they were surprised by the content of the speech, and they wished JEA and NSPA had done a better job of preparing them for what was to be expected. This is a fair critique. When we invited Savage to speak, we asked that he discuss his “It Gets Better” project, which has been an unprecedented social media campaign that relates quite directly to high school students. He agreed and turned over details to his speaker’s bureau contact.
We did not have a prior transcript or outline of Savage’s speech (nor did we for any other speakers), and of course the question-and-answer portions of our keynotes can become unpredictable. Yet Savage has appeared regularly in the news media, so we were familiar with his general background and the broad range of viewpoints he has made publicly. That said, we wish he had stayed more on target for the audience of teen journalists.
Which brings us to the second chief concern some attendees have made, which is the fact that some actually felt hurt by Savage’s comments, especially those aimed at religious beliefs. While some of his earlier comments were so strongly worded that they shook some of our audience members, it is never the intent of JEA or NSPA to let students get hurt during their time at our conventions.
Some audience members who felt hurt by his words and tone decided to leave in the middle of his speech, and to this we want to make our point very clear: While as journalists it’s important to be able to listen to speech that offends you, these students and advisers had simply reached their tolerance level for what they were willing to hear. They left quietly, peacefully, without trying to draw attention to themselves. They did not try to interrupt the speaker or loudly protest his remarks.
We have already heard from some advisers who have turned this into a teachable moment for their students. Dan Savage and his “It Gets Better” project are legitimate newsmakers, and we encourage you to reflect on this topic in your newsrooms. Some student newspapers have already written stories for their publication regarding his speech, and others are sure to write columns or editorials regarding his viewpoints. What are the coverage opportunities for your students?
As a whole, we were very pleased with all of the educational opportunities at the Seattle convention and we hope our attendees feel the same. As always, we love to hear both the darts and laurels regarding all of our convention programming, including the keynotes.”

http://radio.foxnews.com/toddstarnes/top-stories/anti-bullying-speaker-curses-mocks-christian-teens.html

Because I don't feel like spacing out the article:

tl;dr - Anti-bullying promoter and sex columnist Dan Savage talks to a room of a few thousand people about bullying.  Says it's wrong.  Then makes sexual innuendos about his husband's speedo and then profanely says that everyone can ignore the bible because it teaches that homosexuality is wrong.  When a few got offended and left, he called them pansy asses.  Savage is the founder of the It Gets Better project (http://www.itgetsbetter.org/), which has been sponsored by many celebrities and endorsed by President Obama. 

[Townhallsavoy]

A link to the video:

http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/04/28/video-christian-students-walk-out-as-dan-savage-attacks-the-bible/ 

[Token]

Because he was bullying the bullies, that makes it ok. 

[Townhallsavoy]

Because he was bullying the bullies, that makes it ok.

I'll be sure to consider that the next time a homosexual calls me out on my decorating skills. 

[Townhallsavoy]

Some more on this Dan Savage character:

Let’s say, theoretically, I’m a pedophile.

I’m not stupid or evil, so I’m not gonna do anything. I’m not even gonna look at porn. I don’t even look at kids in public, and anyone of whatever orientation who’s been to a crowded beach knows how hard that can be.

So what the fuck should I do? Chemical castration? But I haven’t DONE anything and I don’t plan to. Am I obliged to tell anyone? Good way to lose friends and get the shit kicked out of me. Can I keep babysitting my friends’ kids when they need a hand? After all, if I were into adult women, people wouldn’t see anything wrong with leaving me alone with a couple of those.

My sex drive was put together wrong, Dan. What the fuck do I do? Live alone and hope Japan starts producing affordable sexbots before I’m too old to care?

You know, theoretically. If I were a pedophile.

Knows It’s Wrong

“My heart goes out to people to whom nature has given something as powerful and as distracting as a sex drive and no healthy way to express it,” says Dr. James Cantor, a psychologist and the editor in chief of the research journal Sexual Abuse. “Pedophiles are not the only folks in this position, but they are by far the most demonized, regardless of whether they have ever actually caused anyone any kind of harm.”

My heart is going out to you, too, KIW. As I’ve written before, we should acknowledge the existence of “good pedophiles,” who are burdened with a sexual interest in children but who possess the moral sense to resist acting on that interest. It’s a lifelong struggle for “good pedophiles,” and most manage to succeed without any emotional support—to say nothing of credit—whatsoever.

Unfortunately, science doesn’t know much about pedophiles like you, pedophiles who haven’t done anything, because the social stigma is so great that most nonoffending pedophiles never seek treatment. And what research has been done, says Cantor, isn’t very encouraging if you’re looking to free yourself from your attraction to children.

“There is no known way of turning a pedophile into a nonpedophile,” says Cantor. “The best we can do is help a person maximize their self-control and to help them build an otherwise happy and productive life.”

The psychotherapies that are available, says Cantor, “were designed to assist people who have already committed an offense. These therapies have less to provide to people who already have the skills and drive to keep themselves from ‘acting out.’” Your best option, according to Cantor, may be the one you’re clearly not too enthused about: “Castration, both chemical and physical,” says Cantor, “can indeed be used to eliminate or take the edge off one’s sex drive.”

“Nonoffender pedophiles have told me that chemical castration has given them relief,” Cantor adds. “So it’s unfortunate that we use the term ‘chemical castration,’ which evokes all kinds of emotions. When you get right down to it, we are talking only about taking the same medication used by, for example, prostate-cancer patients—some cancers are accelerated by testosterone, so blocking testosterone is part of the treatment.”

And as for babysitting …

“It is true that a regular, heterosexual man is not going to commit an offense against every woman he finds attractive; however, most women are capable of recognizing when an interaction is starting to go south. Most children are not. So although there is every reason to believe that there exist cats that can successfully be in charge of the canary, it’s not a good idea for the cat to be the one making that call.”

So no babysitting for you, KIW—to protect the kids, first and foremost, but yourself as well. If it ever comes out that you are a pedophile and you were in the habit of babysitting-without-touching, your friends are unlikely to take your protestations—you’ve never touched a child—at face value.

“I wish I had better news,” concludes Cantor. “I also wish that more people did good research on this so that one day I could have better news to give.”

One of the reasons given for the nomination of Pope John Paul II for sainthood is that he “whipped himself with a belt, even on vacation,” according to a new book. If that’s what it takes, why isn’t David Carradine a saint? What is the link between Catholicism and sadomasochism? As a former seminarian, perhaps you can explain this.

When Holiness Is Painful

First, I was in the preparatory seminary—a high school for boys considering the priesthood—not a full-blown seminary, WHIP. (I stopped considering the priesthood when it dawned on me that I could still wear dresses, fuck boys, and live in a big house filled with Catholic kitsch without becoming a priest.)

As for the link between Christianity and sadomasochism, well, considering the way Jesus died and the gruesome deaths of so many early Christians at the hands of Romans, what other choice did Christians have but to view suffering as evidence of divine favor and personal virtue? And I suspect that two thousand years of hearing about how Jesus suffered and died for our sins—whether we wanted him to or not—couldn’t help but have an impact on the erotic inner lives of the faithful. But taking sexual gratification from the infliction of pain predates Christianity—go read your ancient-Roman sex comedies—so you can’t pin all the kinksters out there on the Catholics.

Speaking of whipped saviors: Mike Gerle was International Mr. Leather in 2007—and he’s had it with the goody-two-shoeing of the gay BDSM scene. Leather bars are hosting more fundraisers than dark-and-cruisy beer blasts, and the guys entering leather-title contests seem more interested in raising money than they are in BDSM sex.

“This has got to stop,” Gerle writes on Leatherati. “If for no other reason, it is driving the kinky men I want to hook up with out of the few spaces we have left. This is cock-blocking on an enormous scale.”

My two cents: I think the demise of the anti-BDSM bigotry once so prevalent in the gay community and the advent of the internet have done more harm to the gay leather scene than all those Toys for Tots drives. Kinky guys don’t have to sneak into leather bars and pray that their friends don’t see them anymore; they can post personal ads at sites like Recon and GearFetish. And thanks to the destigmatization of kinks generally, and thanks to concepts like GGG, kinky gay guys don’t have to limit themselves to other kinky gay guys. They can date guys they’re into—vanilla or not—with a reasonable expectation that their kinks will be indulged.

Still, Toys for Tots drives and platitude-spouting leather-title contestants are contributing to the general lameness. In Minneapolis, a young gay kinkster, disappointed by the leather scene, decided to do something about it. Check out his blog at tynanfox.com for details.


Read more: http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/savage-love/Lets-Say-Im-A-Pedophile-83404047.html#ixzz1taFgojqI

That's an article about sympathy for pedophiles by Mr. Savage.  His point is that they're hardwired that way and can't help it.  If they don't act on their pedophiliac urges, they're technically not immoral and should be treated the same as every other person on the planet.  And then he goes on to have some rant against Catholics or something.