It’s been nearly two years since I’ve used this site for much more than a playground for code and I’ve decided it’s time to do some housekeeping. For the few friends who are still subscribed to my rather silent RSS feed, be patient while I sort things out around here.

I’ve decided to move away from using my own child theme of Hybrid, in favor of TwentyTen Five, an HTML5-ified variant of the WordPress default theme. I’m slowly customizing the theme to include a Mighty Life List, an updated portfolio section and a few other features I have in mind. Suffice to say, things may be a bit weird around here until I get reorganized.

This Article is easily the most (only?) worthwhile article I’ve ever read in The Advocate. Michael Joseph Gross provides a brief, yet fairly accurate (in my opinion) summary of the LGBT commuity’s growing unrest with the Obama administrations inactivity when it comes to civil rights legislation. During the past 12 months, the evolution from bold campaign promises to an incomprehensible lack of strategy to an ultimately superficial showing of the-least-we-could-do-to-secure-your-donations support has been painful to watch and has, on several occasions, caused me to question my support for Barack Obama. While I wish I could say that this dissatisfaction has resulted in a staggering uptick in my involvement with civil rights organizations, in reality, I have found myself thinking—on several occasions—”this still beats the hell out of the last eight years.”

I’ve never really viewed the Advocate as even remotely relevant, but it was refreshing to see a mainstream publication—whose last cover featured Bruno in full leather garb—call out everyo ne one of us that has grown complacent enough to think that the mere mention of the word “gay” in a public address equals progressive action. I understand that President Obama began his term under unprecedented circumstances and that there is no man alive that could have lived up to all of the expectations in these first seven months, but I do think that many of us (myself included) have used patience as cover for laziness and I agree whole-heartedly with the writer that it is time to hold the president and his administration to our timeline and not wait for when it is politically advisable to make a move toward civil equality.

I’ve been engaged for a little less than three weeks, and I plan on being married this time next year. Is it reasonable to expect the government to recognize my marriage by the time my wedding takes place? I’m not going to hold my breath, but I still find it amazing that this is something I need to worry about in 2009. I am appalled that we are not leading the world in progressive civil rights and I’m glad that this article gave me a quick slap in the face.