(Image courtesy Dominic Holden)

In a 2012 story for Capitol Hill-based The Stranger, writer Dominic Holden pretty much confirmed something many LGBTQ people and their allies had long suspected: Top donors to anti-gay marriage campaigns are really obsessed with the butt sex.

In a newly written monologue, aptly titled Talking Shit, Holden is combining his reporting on anti-gay marriage campaign donors with musings on the hypocrisies of those on both sides of the gay marriage debate, as well as personal stories of sex and politics. The two-day run at the 19th and Mercer Washington Ensemble Theatre begins Saturday night. You can purchase the $10 tickets here.

“The overarching theme here is that there is a crusade between the moral left and moral right to attack each other and expose each other, but it’s not like their crusades are as virtuous as they seem to be,” Holden told CHS. “The Christian right want to characterize gay people as drug using, porn watching, anal sex having freaks. And to be fair, I’m all three.”

Holden, a 36-year-old Seattle native and Central District resident, has been a full-time staff reporter at The Stranger since 2008. His 2012 story “I Called the Top Individual Donors to Reject Gay Marriage to Let Them Explain Their Opposition” was exactly that, and it garnered a lot of praise for stripping away much of the political posturing surrounding those opposed to Washington’s 2012 same-sex marriage vote. (He did a similar story in 2009).

Holden said he compiled the monologue in just a couple of weeks, but culled material from throughout his life while weaving in reporting he’s done over the years. During his teens Holden was active in theater, but Talking Shit will be his first foray into writing and performing his own work.

Following a recent promotion after his many years at The Stranger, Holden seems ready to also expand his presence as a social critic and commentator. He has a good role model in Stranger editorial director Dan Savage. The Capitol Hill resident has added popular books, speaking appearances and, yup, even film to his repertoire and become a well known commentator on sex, religion, parenting and politics.

Given that Holden was The Stranger news editor for several years (he was recently promoted to associate editor) we figured he must have a hook for coming out with Talking Shit now.

“For years, ballot measures to ban gay rights and rulings against gay rights were ways to motivate the Christians right; these days, the tide has turned. Gay marriage is passing in lots of states, and that progress now motivates the liberal left the way it used to motivate the right,” he said. “So now’s a good time to look at–and laugh at–just how absurd the rhetoric has become and whether these two factions should even bother loathing each other anymore.”

Dominic Holden will perform Talking Shit at the Washington Ensemble Theatre, 608 19th Ave E, Saturday the 26th and Sunday the 27th at 7:30 PM. Tickets are $10.