I don't think I need to tell anyone here what an important day yesterday was in the history of civil rights in this country. A second state formally recognized marriage equality; the second state in question, were it an independent country, would be the seventh largest economy in the world, making this a decision on par with Belgium's, Spain's, and the Netherlands' decisions to recognize gay marriage.

But I wanted to share with everyone a couple of touching moments that have been captured in the twenty four hours since California became the second state in the union to recongnize marriage equality.

Follow me over the jump to have the cockles of your heart warmed.

What is it with this site and election hysteria?

A diary that is rocketing to the top of the Rec list claims that over a million voters have been purged from Indiana's registered voter lists this year, dropping the state from 5.4 million registered voters to 4.3 million.

It's been recommended like mad.

It can't possibly be true (or if it is true, it is a good thing).

Follow me over the jump for a lesson on Indiana demographics.

An article in the Independent from yesterday discusses yet another in a recent string of disturbing environmental phenomena: Apparently, flowers are losing their ability to produce an odor.

Pollution is dulling the scent of flowers and impeding some of the most basic processes of nature, disrupting insect life and imperilling food supplies, a new study suggests.

The study suggests that the principle culprit is auto emissions, and that the absense of odor may impede the ability of flowers to attract bees in order to pollinate them.

There's no question that what ABC did last night at its "debate" was inexcusable.

ABC focused on ridiculous "gotcha" questions instead of delving into real policy.

ABC ignored the bevy of important issues that lie before us today: energy and food shortages, FISA, the war, the sub-prime debacle, healthcare. The list goes on and on.

But the question I would pose: are the major sites in the blogosphere really doing much better?

Ok, I can hold a grudge. There's been a part of me that has been angry at Barack Obama for a very long time for McClurkinGate. I still don't think he handled the aftermath of it well. I still think Obama should have called out  McClurkin more strongly and vocally after the things he said while MCing the campaign event in South Carolina.

But it's beginning to become clear to me that, no matter what Obama's shortcomings may have been regarding McClurkin, he's the real deal when it comes to fighting against homophobia.

And I'm not talking about the impressive open letter Obama wrote to the gay community. That's nice and all, but actions speak louder than words. Follow me over the jump to hear about Obama's actions in Beaumont, Texas.

Sometimes, you come across something in the mainstream media that simply makes you fume.

As I imagine most people know, last week, a boy name Lawrence King was shot by one of his classmates in a California school. Within 24 hours, doctors determined that he was braindead.

In an appalling act of psuedo-journalism that seems to be driven by a focus-on-family like distortion of reality, Time Magazine has publish an article on the shooting that claims that gay activists exaggerate the problem of anti-gay discrimination in schools in America.

Follow me over the fold an share the outrage.

I've been posting less and less, and now I've more or less had it.

I could go into a great deal of detail, but the bottom line is this: the diaries on Dailykos are making me lose respect for the ground troops of the Democratic party.

I see rampant intellectual dishonesty.

I see distortion after distortion.

I see dogged refusal to accept other points of view.

An article in today's New York Times talks about the impact of the invasion of Iraq on the country's LGBT community.

One of the most disturbing results of our invasion of Iraq is that rather than leading to a government that supports greater freedoms and more civil rights for minorities, the war has given ever-greater power to religious zealots and extremists.

Before the Gulf wars (things started to go south after the 1991 war, but it's the current war that's really made things bad), Iraq had one of the most permissive and progressive societies in the Middle East for both Woman's rights and Gay rights. Follow me over the jump for a picture of being gay in Iraq, then and now.

You cannot smear me with my name.

My name is part of who I am. It shows my past, my heritage. It cannot be used to smear me.

You cannot smear me with my sexuality. I am a gay man. You cannot smear me with that. It has shaped me. It has stengthened me.

You cannot smear me with my religion. I'm an atheist. I'm proud of my atheism. It shows my skepticism. It's a reflection of my intellectual and cultural formation.

I'll keep this short and sweet, but it's just the kind of outrageous nonsense I think everyone should be aware of.

I quit my fulltime job in August of 2003, which means my COBRA expired in February of 2005. At that point, I did a thorough exploration of all the possible health insurance in New York. I determine that the cheapest "real" health insurance in the state was (and, as far as I know, still is) HIP.

When I signed up in February of 2005, the premiums were at just above $400/month. The next year, they were at about $475. This year, they increased a mere 5% or so to just above $500. For next year, starting next month, my health insurance premiums will settle in at right around $602/month.

After some of the positive response I received to a similar diary last week, I've decided to start doing a regular, weekly roundup of significant LGBT news stories. My focus will largely be on the challenges that still face the LGBT community in America and across the globe, though I'll certainly include significant victories when they occur as well.

Since this is a new ongoing project for me, I'd greatly appreciate constructive feedback on the format, the content, and tone of the diary. Also, I'll be more than happy to receive news of LGBT items you think will be relevant for next Wednesday's diary; my email address is in my profile.

Important though the issue is, the death of the Hate Crimes bill was diaried to death last week, so I'm not included it in this diary. Now, on to the news.

Last week, a luminary in activism-- largely gay activism, but his reach was really much longer than that-- passed away in New York City.

I was fortunate enough to meet Bob Kohler once, shorly after I moved to New York City, through a mutual friend of ours. It's funny, because at the time, I had no idea who he was. A rough-edged, candid man from another generation of gay men. I remember being impressed by his energy. I remember his giving me an entire laundry list of reasons I should hate then-mayor Giuliani. I remember his passion and the spark of life that animated him. I remember liking him from moment we met.

I didn't realize then what an exceptional man he was; I wish I'd taken advantage of the opportunity to know him better. Read on to learn more about Bob Kohler.

I've seen a couple of diaries recently, including this one today, taking Krugman to task for his support of mandates in the Democratic healthcare plans (in clear opposition, therefore, to Obama's plan). He's been called a hack, a neo-liberal who's looking out for the interests of for-profit health insurance over the interests of consumers, and has been smeared in any number of ways.

It's been asked why he supports mandates instead of single-payer healthcaere.

Well, here's the thing: he doesn't. But don't take my word for it. Try looking at everything Krugman has been saying on health insurance the past few months instead of just focusing on one column.

Of course, you're used to it if you're gay. Every week, you see story after story that makes you wonder if there's ever any real hope of anything approaching acceptance or equality. You gnash your teeth. You vent to friends. Sometimes, maybe, you tear up a little.

But this week, it just felt like I was getting hit by story after story. It's only Wednesday night, and it's already been a pretty bad week.

Except that I really don't think it has been. The more I think about, the more I realize these are just the kinds of stories you see about LGBT rights every day, if you know where to look.

It's pretty clear that candidate diaries are here to stay. Well, at least for another couple of months. In fact, I feel confident they'll be getting worse before they get better. So I have a suggestion; it may not be feasable, and I may be the only one interested in such a thing, but hey, you never know unless you ask.

You see, I miss the days when I would go to Dailykos, look at the Rec List, and get educated. When I would learn something about a topic I knew nothing about, or see a story here that wouldn't hit the mainstream media for another couple of days (or longer), or when I'd read something really moving, or shocking, or energizing, or inspiring.

Yes, those diaries still get up there. Some of the time. But it's not at all uncommon these days for half the diaries or more on the Rec List to be candidate diaries, often multiple diaries on the same topic.

Earlier today, searching for lyrics to some of my favorite Billy Bragg songs to post a respond to grannyhelen, I began to wax a bit nostalgic.

Billy Bragg (along with the Smiths and REM) was the soundtrack of my teenage years. He was on heavy rotation from the time I first heard him, in 1984, until I graduated from college. Catchy pop sung in a lovely British accent, Bragg's music was penned as two of the darlings of Neo-Conservatism-- Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher-- were at their respective peaks of power.

But what struck me as I took a stroll down memory lane, the songs playing in my mind as surely as they would on my stereo, was how many of the issues that have been exacerbated over the past 25 years were already evident in the early to mid 1980's. It's true: everything I needed to know about neo-cons I learned from Billy Bragg.

I see it in diary after diary, people touting their candidate's progressive views on equality for all.

And I'm frankly getting sick of it.

Unless your candidate is Kucinich, your candidate is NOT for LGBT equality.

A recent diary on the rec list (which was or will be deleted by the time you read this one; thanks Adam B! I still think it's worth drawing attention to this site for what it is, though) links to a rather disturbing offer to pay bloggers for positive comments about Hillary Clinton on political blogs across the internet. The important condition for payment? That the comments include a link back to the blog in question.

The problem is that it strikes me that the blog in question is almost certainly fake.