Gay troublemaker Dan Savage brings amateur porn festival HUMP! to Atlanta

Dan Savage once let everyone know that “It Gets Better.” He’s about to let Atlanta know it gets dirtier.

The gay internationally syndicated sex advice columnist, media pundit and co-creator of the It Gets Better Project debuts his amateur porn festival HUMP! in Atlanta on May 30 and 31 at The Plaza Theater. And he’s not worried about bringing this kind of production to the south, either.

“The Bible Belt has the highest levels of watching porn, so we know you guys are lapping this stuff up,” Savage tells The GA Voice. “We’re not worried.”

Author, media pundit and It Gets Better Project co-creator Dan Savage. (photo via Wikapedia)
Writer, media pundit and It Gets Better Project co-creator Dan Savage. (photo via Wikapedia)

HUMP! started in 2005 “as a joke, kind of like my career and my whole life,” Savage says. He challenged his readers to submit amateur porn starring none other than themselves, and the entries were so good that they decided to put on a festival in Seattle.

One question persisted before the first showing though: “Would people come to watch porn like their grandparents did like with Deep Throat?” Savage says. “And they did.”

Every year the festival got bigger and bigger, leading them to take it on tour for the first time this year.

“It’s this amazing celebration of sex and sexual diversity,” Savage says. “It’s not a dirty movie show with people in their coats masturbating.”

The genders, sexual orientations and fetishes run the gamut as well, making for a unique viewing experience.

“What HUMP does is put you in a theater and gay people are watching straight porn and straight people are watching gay porn and so on,” Savage says. “At first people are shocked, then they see the common humanity underneath it. The desire, the sense of humor, the lust, the vulnerability is exactly the same.”

The HUMP! Tour
May 30 and 31
The Plaza Theater
Click for more information.

VIDEO NSFW

psaunders@thegavoice.com | @patricksaunders