It looks like Dan Savage is taking the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) President Brian Brown up on his offer for a Bible debate -- and the outspoken lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) rights advocate has picked an unusual setting.
"So, what I’d like to do is invite you to dinner," Savage reveals in a new podcast. "Bring the wife. My husband will be there. I will hire a video crew and we will video sort of an after dinner debate."
Savage, who infamously launched a campaign to redefine former GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum's last name into a neologism involving anal sex, then continued: "You have to acknowledge my humanity by accepting my hospitality, and I have to acknowledge yours by extending my hospitality to you."
Earlier this month, Brown offered what he called a "public challenge" to Savage, after the sex advice columnist's controversial remarks about the Bible's stance on homosexuality at a student journalism convention in Seattle sparked an uproar.
"I’m here, you name the time and the place and let’s see what a big man you are in a debate with someone who can talk back," Brown noted on NOM's blog at the time. "It’s easy to make high-school girls cry by picking on them. Let’s pick on someone our own size!"
Brown continued: "I’m here, any time, any place you name, Dan Savage. You will find out out how venal and ridiculous your views of these things are if you dare to accept a challenge."
The New Civil Rights Movement's David Badash reports that, if all goes according to plan, the debate will last one hour and will be released on YouTube, unedited. Savage has also invited New York Times scribe Mark Oppenheimer to ensure that the debate is "fair."
Take a look at some of the best videos from Dan Savage's "It Gets Better" anti-bullying campaign below:
