Silence isn’t an issue for sex advice columnist Dan Savage. His unfiltered thoughts on relationships and controversial topics brought students to an event to ask questions they may not have otherwise.

In his speech “Savage Love!” Savage, an openly gay columnist and author, spoke to students and faculty Wednesday night in the Marshall Student Center Ballroom as the second event of the University Lecture Series.

“(I liked that) it was open, that it created a good environment for people to ask questions they didn’t want to ask their friends,” said Ellwood Janney, a sophomore double majoring in history and international studies.

Audience members submitted anonymous questions that ranged from sexual orientation to the acceptance of gay students on college campuses.

“It’s getting better all the time,” Savage said in his speech. “We have to remember how far we’ve come compared with our rights 10, 20, 30 years ago. If you had told me 10 years ago that gays could marry in five states, I would not have believed you. We are winning.”

USF student Amanda Pease, a Seattle native, said she grew up reading Savage’s columns, which appear in the newspaper The Stranger.

“He’s pretty famous where (I’m) from,” said Pease, a graduate industrial hygiene student. “I’ve been reading (his column) since I was 12.”

Kyle Olle, a sophomore majoring in biology, said he learned that there are a lot more people who are open about their sexuality.

“The more you are open about something, the easier it is to express it to someone else,” Olle said.

Savage said individuals should not be bitter from past relationships that end on bad circumstances.

“Every relationship you’re in is going to fail until one doesn’t – the end,” Savage said. “If you both learned something about yourselves and had a good time, then how could that be a failure?”

Savage said heterosexual individuals have just as much to worry about as homosexuals. He said politicians have banned things like gay marriage upon homosexuals and that “straight people are next.”

“How do you learn to love your (homosexual) life? You live it,” Savage said. “When I was 14, if I could have taken a pill to make myself straight, I would have … Now, I love my life, and I love the (homosexual) part of it, because you can’t unscramble it.”