Anti-bullying activist accused of bullying Christian students
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SEATTLE -- A local anti-bullying activist is being criticized for the words he used in front of several thousand high school students.
Dan Savage is the voice of a nationwide movement to stop anti-gay bullying. But a recent speech he gave at a high school journalism convention in Seattle has some Christians accusing him of being the bully.
At the convention, Savage told the audience, "We can learn to ignore the (expletive) in the Bible about gay people."
The line drew applause from some students, but others found it offensive enough to walk out on the speech.
As they left, Savage told the students to tell the "Bible guys" who had left to come back because he was done "beating up the Bible."
"It's funny, as someone who's on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible, how pansy-assed some people react when you push back," Savage said at the event.
Kyra Dahlman from Mountlake Terrace High School attended the convention.
"I'm a Christian, so I kind of took what he said personally, but I had to let it roll off. It's just words, it can't really hurt you," she said.
Savage wasn't available for an interview about the controversy, but he did post an apology online.
"I would like to apologize for describing that walk out as a pansy-assed move. I wasn't calling the handful of students who left pansies (2800+ students, most of them Christian, stayed and listened), just the walk-out itself," he said.
While she didn't appreciate Savage's remarks, Dahlman is also critical of the students who walked out.
"I just thought their integrity as journalists was really questioned because usually journalists have to put their beliefs to the side," she said. "They can't just say, 'Oh I don't believe in this, I have to walk out.'"
Journalism teacher Vince DeMiero was on the committee that invited Savage to the convention.
"Unfortunately, what that group missed was some of the comments that he made just a few minutes later about his own personal faith and his family," he said.
In his online apology, Savage also said, "I was not attacking the faith in which I was raised. I was attacking the argument that gay people must be discriminated against."
DeMiero said there's a lesson to be learned in the controversy.
"Too often we forget how it feels to be on one end of the bullying if we've never been bullied," he said.
Dan Savage is the voice of a nationwide movement to stop anti-gay bullying. But a recent speech he gave at a high school journalism convention in Seattle has some Christians accusing him of being the bully.
At the convention, Savage told the audience, "We can learn to ignore the (expletive) in the Bible about gay people."
The line drew applause from some students, but others found it offensive enough to walk out on the speech.
As they left, Savage told the students to tell the "Bible guys" who had left to come back because he was done "beating up the Bible."
"It's funny, as someone who's on the receiving end of beatings that are justified by the Bible, how pansy-assed some people react when you push back," Savage said at the event.
Kyra Dahlman from Mountlake Terrace High School attended the convention.
"I'm a Christian, so I kind of took what he said personally, but I had to let it roll off. It's just words, it can't really hurt you," she said.
Savage wasn't available for an interview about the controversy, but he did post an apology online.
"I would like to apologize for describing that walk out as a pansy-assed move. I wasn't calling the handful of students who left pansies (2800+ students, most of them Christian, stayed and listened), just the walk-out itself," he said.
While she didn't appreciate Savage's remarks, Dahlman is also critical of the students who walked out.
"I just thought their integrity as journalists was really questioned because usually journalists have to put their beliefs to the side," she said. "They can't just say, 'Oh I don't believe in this, I have to walk out.'"
Journalism teacher Vince DeMiero was on the committee that invited Savage to the convention.
"Unfortunately, what that group missed was some of the comments that he made just a few minutes later about his own personal faith and his family," he said.
In his online apology, Savage also said, "I was not attacking the faith in which I was raised. I was attacking the argument that gay people must be discriminated against."
DeMiero said there's a lesson to be learned in the controversy.
"Too often we forget how it feels to be on one end of the bullying if we've never been bullied," he said.
