Dan Savage

Dan Savage
Dan Savage in 2005
Born	Daniel Keenan Savage (1964-10-07) October 7, 1964 (age 52) Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
Residence	Seattle, Washington, U.S.
Other names	Keenan Hollahan
Education	Quigley Preparatory Seminary North
Alma mater	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (BFA)
Occupation	Author, media pundit, journalist, newspaper editor and sex advice columnist
Years active	1991–present
Spouse(s)	Terry Miller (m. 2005)
Children	D.J.

Daniel Keenan "Dan" Savage (born October 7, 1964) is an American author, media pundit, journalist, and activist for the LGBT community. He writes Savage Love, an internationally syndicated relationship and sex advice column. In 2010, Savage and his husband, Terry Miller, began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth. He has also worked as a theater director, sometimes credited as Keenan Hollahan.

In his writing and public appearances, Savage has clashed with both social conservatives and the LGBT establishment. He has opposed Rick Santorum's views on homosexuality. He has made several controversial public statements in various media, often lambasting people with whom he disagrees.

Dan Savage was born in Chicago, Illinois, the son of Judith "Judy" (née Schneider), who worked at Loyola University, and William Savage, Sr. He has German and Irish ancestry. The third of four children, Savage was raised as a Roman Catholic and attended Quigley Preparatory Seminary North, which he has described as "a Catholic high school in Chicago for boys thinking of becoming priests." Though Savage has stated that he is now "a wishy-washy agnostic" and an atheist, he has said that he still identifies as "culturally Catholic."

Savage attended the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he received a BFA in Acting. He lived abroad in West Berlin from late 1988 to 1990.

In 1991, Savage was living in Madison, Wisconsin, and working as a manager at a local video store that specialized in independent film titles. He befriended Tim Keck, co-founder of The Onion, who announced that he was moving to Seattle to help start an alternative weekly newspaper titled The Stranger. Savage "made the offhand comment that forever altered [his] life: 'Make sure your paper has an advice column—everybody claims to hate 'em, but everybody seems to read 'em'." Savage wrote a sample column, and to his surprise, Keck offered him the job.