Happy new year - glad to ring in 2014

Happy New Year, everyone! It's bye-bye to 2013. I hope you all had a safe and fun evening celebrating. Kate and I both fell asleep and missed the ball drop hour, lol.

2013 was a year of personal milestones and observations. Here's just a short personal look back (after all, I can be self-indulgent on my own FB wall, lol).

-- I closed PHB after 9 years of online citizen journalism, with amazing send-offs from Michelangelo Signorile, Melissa Harris-Perry, and many of you with thoughtful FB messages and Tweets;

-- I celebrated my 50th birthday in NYC with friends and family;

-- I marked 20 years at my "real job" at Duke University Press;

-- And, of course, 2013 was a year of dealing with life-altering health challenges that are here to stay (and was the impetus for closing the blog).

Despite the personal setbacks related to the latter, it was a positive year to witness changes in LGBT life in the U.S. The civil equality ball has moved forward faster than I could have predicted, with the fall of a big piece of DOMA and more and unexpected states welcoming marriage equality.

On the other hand, we've got intransigent inequality in many states, where you still cannot be out on the job, there are no public accommodations protections, and marriage recognition is a pipe dream waiting on SCOTUS. Transgender rights have a long way to go no matter how you slice it. I hope the LGB movement puts forth the effort to effect changes that make a difference.

And race relations? Jesus, our country needs a reboot on this one. Re-electing the first black President only seemed to exacerbate the crazies on the Right, and generated precious little intelligent dialog along with cluelessness-- pretending we don't have a serious problem in this area is ludicrous. Trying to assign blame rather than accepting and working through the role privilege plays seems to be a challenge we cannot quite reach these days.

That whole Rodney King "can't we all just get along" rings in my head quite often.

But it's 2014 now, so I look forward to more news, more joy, more frustration and life in general -- as it is, while I work to make it what I hope it can be. Many gracious good wishes for you and yours.

On July 1, 2014, Kate and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage (thank you, Canada!), so it's a nice milestone in this new year that we both look forward to!