Sex Columnist Speaks at Univ. of Iowa Law School Event
Dan Savage is probably best known to many as the openly gay author of explicit newspaper sex-advice columns (often written, he says, on the desk he purchased from the estate of his esteemed predecessor in the advice-column business, Ann Landers).
However, he is taking a higher profile as something of a legal expert, now that the issue of same-sex marriage is gaining traction in California and elsewhere, according to the Daily Iowan.
Savage, in fact, is scheduled to speak tonight, along with two politicians, at an annual symposium at the University of Iowa College of Law hosted by the Journal of Gender, Race, and Justice, the campus publication notes. It will focus on Iowa’s landmark Varnum v. Brien case; links to discussions of the case are provided below.
Coordinator Emily Winfield says the witty Savage was a popular speaker at the 2006 symposium, and can be counted upon to spark a lively discussion.
“The journal’s mission is to … talk about those topics that make people shift in their seats a little bit, that make them a little uncomfortable,” she says. “Not in an offensive way or an accusatory way, but to just get people thinking about same-sex marriage as more than a legal question pending before the court. To think about it as a social issue, a political issue, a religious issue.”
Related coverage:
Lambda Legal: “Varnum v. Brien”
Sexual Orientation and the Law Blog (Sept. 2007): “Due Process in Varnum v. Brien”
One Iowa (press release, Dec. 2008): “Public figures react to Varnum v. Brien oral arguments”
