Dan Savage found himself in a sticky sparkly situation last week while filming his new late-night MTV series, “Savage U,” at UC Irvine.
In the show, set on college campuses across the country, the celebrated sex writer (whose column runs in OC Weekly) helps students navigate romance and life under the sheets with raw, oftentimes graphic advice.
One student at the UCI taping asked via index card if her boyfriend was a freak because he watched porn featuring trans women. According to The Bilerico Project, Savage “suggested that her boyfriend was a freak, while freely using the terms 'shemale' and 'freaky tranny porn.'”
And that's when he was “glittered.”
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Two individuals ran up and threw glitter on the TV show host while yelling, “Transphobe!” according to the Bilerico account. (However, UCI spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon says the police report states there were three people who ran up, and just one who threw glitter.) It is unclear whether the individuals were students.
The glitter-bombing was in protest of Savage's use of the terms “tranny” and “shemale,” considered slurs in the transgender/transexual community. It's the second time he's been glittered by trans activists this month.
According to Lawhon, the unnamed glitter-er was arrested and cited for assault, and then later released.
After being glittered, Savage laughed it off, and said that being gay, he loves glitter. He later defended himself by telling blogger Joe. My. God. that the words being objected to were actually used in the question he read, and that in his response, he noted that some people “have trouble” with the terms.
Savage, who launched the viral “It Gets Better” project for gay youth, has been labeled “transphobic” on multiple occasions, an accusation he denies. He admitted to The New Civil Rights Movement that he had feeling of transphobia 15 years ago, but now, he says, “I'm not afraid of trans people.”
