Dan Savage on 'The Commitment'

Dan Savage on 'The Commitment'

One day way back in November, while listening to NPR's "All Things Considered" during my drive home from work, I heard a teaser for an interview that would be broadcast the next morning: Dan Savage talking about the realization that his 7-year-old son DJ was hearing his fathers' relationship discussed as "a threat to all things decent and good." I didn't hear the interview, and for the next few days some glitch at NPR.org kept me from hearing the story online. Knowing the problem would be fixed eventually, I stuck the link in a blog post, saved it as a draft, and promptly forgot about it.

This morning I ran across the unposted draft, and finally followed the working link to listen to the story. The highlight for me was Savage saying, "All kids understand a promise," and DJ coming to realize that marriage is a promise people make to stay related. Which is why when DJ is picking the rings Dan and Terry will use in their marriage ceremony, he chooses rings with skulls on them, saying, "Dad, don't you understand you're going to get married? That means you have to stay together till you die."

(If listening doesn't work for you, the transcript is available in EBSCOhost Newspaper Source. Search for "dan savage" and enter "morning edition" as the newspaper name).