Dan Savage Talks Liberace, 'It's A Wonderful Life,' & Bedford Falls Sex Lives On '12 Gays Of Christmas'

- Retro Recaps -
Dan Savage Talks Liberace, 'It's A Wonderful Life,' & Bedford Falls Sex Lives On '12 Gays Of Christmas'

For Savage Love author Dan Savage, there's nothing that says Christmas like It's A Wonderful Life... and "A Liberace Christmas." Savage, appearing on The Dipp's 12 Gays Of Christmas podcast, tells host Brian Moylan that the latter is in regular rotation in his household, spreading not only Christmas cheer, but deep appreciation.

“It’s emotionally significant for me in some way to put that Liberace album on because it makes me feel how far we’ve come and that Christmas is ours too and family is ours too in a way that we were told as young gay kids that being gay meant you couldn’t have that kind of family relationship,” he says during 12 Gays Of Christmas' latest episode.

And it's also a way to celebrate Liberace, who wasn't able to live public life as a gay man during the height of his fame. "For me, it's a marker. I play that album and I think, I could have lived that life — the tortured, closeted warped life that he did, but because of people like his contemporaries, people like Harvey Milk, I didn't have to live that life ...we play his album to invite him into the kind of Christmas and self-acceptance [being] embraced by friends and neighbors that we experience."

But, of course, on 12 Gays, we're here to talk about movies — and perhaps no movie says "Christmas" quite like It's A Wonderful Life. As Savage tells Brian during their discussion of the 1946 classic, "What It's A Wonderful Life gives us permission to do is think back over our lives and remember a moment where we made a difference for someone. And if we can't to think, well, there may have been moments where we made a difference for someone and we didn't even realize it."

And, because it is the season of giving, there's even more to the chat, including discussion surrounding the Marlo Thomas remake, who was having sex in Bedford Falls, and a Christmas-themed quiz straight out of Urban Dictionary.

So, go ahead — ring that bell for an angel, and check out the latest episode of 12 Gays Of Christmas on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts! It's the most wonderful, gayest time of the year!

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