Dan Savage and Terry Miller

Dan Savage, a controversial gay rights activist, blogger, journalist, and newspaper editor, is the most “out” person on this list. In 2005, he married Terry Miller, his longtime wife, with whom he began the “It Gets Better” project five years later. They also have an adopted son together. Dan earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in acting from the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.

He moved to Madison, Wisconsin, after living in West Berlin from 1988 to 1990, where he met Tim Keck, co-founder of The Onion. When Keck relocated to Seattle, Washington, Dan relocated and worked as an advice columnist for The Stranger, which Keck co-founded; Keck had offered him the job after reading a sample column impressed him. Since then, Dan has become a columnist and a vocal advocate for LGBT rights in the United States, voicing his support through his column, Savage Love, and a podcast version of his column, the Savage Lovecast.