D. Savage pisses off HS kids, gets called a Christian basher

[Terrie]

There is some suggestions circulating that the walkout was staged by Focus on the Family, who somehow managed to get quotes from the kids up on their website the same day as the walkout.

[CynicMom]

I noticed that in the original video. Most of the kids didn't seem upset. They were smiling at each other.

[longskirtlotsakids]

Would it have squicked you out as much if it was a straight 17-y/o male getting advice about vaginal sex? Teens have sex. Gay teens have gay sex. I'd rather help the kid to have safe sex, regardless of orientation, then try to pretend like a 17-y/o is too young to receive explicit instructions.

Oh TOTALLY. See, I think gay sex is gross, and that is the only reason why it grossed me out. Not that it was from an adult to a minor and was very explicit. No, not at all, It was the two weenies that made me think it was All Bad.

you can read it yourself, it was the "Savage love" column from three weeks ago. Go read it aloud in a Starbucks if you want and take bets as to how many paragraphs in you can get beofre you're tossed.

[Elle]

I would have slapped him. That asshole called minor children pansy-assed. He was supposed to be giving an anti bullying speech and he did the very thing that a bully does. If a father told his son that he was acting pansy assed, that would be considered verbal abuse and people would call him a bully. If a kid in school said that to another student, it would be considered bullying. Savage doesn't get a pass because he offended Christian kids.

These kids are in high school. They're not little kids. More than half the kids in high school are old enough to drive, and a large chunk are old enough to sign on the line to enlist in the military and go to war. If they aren't old enough to be called pansy-asses for their only reason for being bigots is a book tells them what to think, then they aren't old enough to enlist in the military or drive or even get birth control to have sex. Those three things are much larger than the ability to handle being called out on reasonless bigotry.

When kids school call each other pansy asses, it's usually the kid who doesn't want to do the wrong thing, the kid who doesn't want to vandalize or drink alcohol.

[valsa]

Oh TOTALLY. See, I think gay sex is gross, and that is the only reason why it grossed me out. Not that it was from an adult to a minor and was very explicit. No, not at all, It was the two weenies that made me think it was All Bad.

you can read it yourself, it was the "Savage love" column from three weeks ago. Go read it aloud in a Starbucks if you want and take bets as to how many paragraphs in you can get beofre you're tossed.

So are you against sex ed too? Because that's also adults giving sometimes explicit information about sex to teens. I mean, how else are teens supposed to get information, if not from adults?

And by the way, I could try reading the lesson plans from my high school and middle school sex ed classes out loud in Starbucks and probably wouldn't get much farther than with "Savage love".

[debrand]

States vary in their ages of consent. In NC and many other states, the age of consent is 16. 17 year olds should be mature enough to handle a sexual discussion. It wasn't as if Savage was coming on to the young man.

In America, parents feel that it is their duty to protect their children's innocence. Some conservative Christians even feel it is only the parent's right to inform their children about sex or even if the children will know about sex at all. I strongly disagree with this attitude.

[debrand]

If children's sexual education is limited to what can be said in a Starbucks, kids won't even learn that girls have vaginas and boys have penises. Don't beleive me? Go stand in a Starbucks and say loudly, "Girls have vaginas and boys have penises." You'd probably get tossed out for that relatively harmless fact also.

I can't imagine limiting my child's sexual knowledge to what can be said outloud in a Starbucks.

[polabear]

On Dan's latest podcast, he addressed the walk out. First, he spoke to over 2000 kids - only 22 walked out. All of the kids had to have signed permission slips to hear the talk, and the parents were notifiied of the content of his talk. The organizers of the conference told Dan to give his usual talk and to not hold back.

He did apologize for the pansy assed comment, however.