Useful Idiots Guests In The News: Jesse Singal Saga Continues

Writer Dan Savage becomes the latest target of a Twitter meltdown, for defending Singal

Updating Useful Idiots followers on developments with the show’s guests:

GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, just launched a new program called the GLAAD accountability project. The program “catalogs anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and discriminatory actions of politicians, commentators, organization heads, religious leaders, and legal figures who have used their platforms, influence and power to spread misinformation and harm LGBTQ people.”

Jesse Singal, who along with his Blocked and Reported co-host Katie Herzog was a guest on last week’s Useful Idiots, was included on the GLAAD Wall of Shame. Singal objected to being put on a list with Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and other worthies. Noted progressive/LGBTQ icon Dan Savage — the man who coined the neologism “Santorum” — did something we don’t often see on social media these days, and backed him up:

Dan Savage @fakedansavage

I want to say, "I challenge anyone to listen to this interview @jessesingal did with youth-gender clinician Dr. Erica Anderson and tell me he's transphobic," but I know people will continue to insist he's transphobic. But he isn't.

barpodcast.fireside.fmBonus Interview: Youth-Gender Clinician Dr. Erica Anderson On Assessment, The Culture Wars, And Rapid Onset Gender DysphoriaIn a bonus interview episode, Jesse interviews Dr. Erica Anderson, a trans woman and Bay-Area-based gender clinician with years of experience working with transgender and gender nonconforming youth. The two discuss the white-hot debate over trans kids, including what comprehensive, compassionate ass…

Dan Savage @fakedansavage

Anyway, I'm speaking up now because this bullshit @glaad is pulling is just appalling. Putting Singal on a list with people like Tony Perkins and Brian Brown and Keith Ablow is just fucking bullshit. It's defamatory.

jessesingal.substack.comGLAAD Took False, Previously Disproven Internet Scuttlebutt And Used It To Justify Putting Me On A List Of Supposed Anti-LGBT Bigots (Updat…This is infuriating

As Herzog pointed out, Savage somewhat incredibly ended up trending in the U.S…

Katie Herzog @kittypurrzog

My friend Dan did something that shouldn’t take bravery yesterday but did: He defended someone who has been falsely accused. And then this happened...

… as much of Twitter spent the evening of March 22-23 listing reasons to despise Dan Savage who, it turns out, not only sucks, but always has sucked:

Avery Edison @aedison

hahahahaha dan savage has been a problem for quite a while but it’s nice of him to make that clearer than ever before

Evan Greer @evan_greer

I originally wrote this song as a punk open letter to all TERFs and transphobes but today i'm going to send it out specifically to fucking Dan Savage

wbur.orgListen: Evan Greer’s Pop-Punk Anthem Is ‘An Open Letter To Transphobes’With a backdrop of soaring, snarling guitars, Greer channels the anthemic pop-punk of the early aughts on her new song “The Tyranny of Either/Or.”

Noah Berlatsky @nberlat

Dan Savage proving he's not transphobic by (checks notes) defending Jesse Singal. maybe not the best approach.

allison @allisongeroi

Dan Savage stopped being culturally relevant as soon as this episode of Shrill dropped, we can all move on

We at Useful Idiots have no comment, except to make the obvious observation that we somehow caused all of this. For those who missed last week’s episode, here’s that interview: