I didn't want kids to think that to be happy, they had to be famous or rich or live in the big city.

Interest starts accruing now. His political leanings are primarily liberal with pronounced contrarian and libertarian streaks. "
Savage continued the tradition in 2009 by having his readers vote to define saddlebacking as "the phenomenon of Christian teens engaging in unprotected anal sex in order to preserve their virginities" as a protest against the vocal support given to California Proposition 8 by Rick Warren (pastor of Saddleback Church) and President Barack Obama's invitation to Warren to give the invocation at his inauguration.

In 2010 Savage and his husband Terry Miller began the It Gets Better Project to help prevent suicide among LGBT youth. He has also worked as a theater director sometimes credited as Keenan Hollahan. He has been particularly vocal in response to Rick Santorum's views on homosexuality.