I understand the fear.

That gnawing fear that, even though our party has every advantage this year, we'll somehow manage to fuck it up and lose.

It's an awful fear, and I expect everyone here feels it in some measure some days as the election draws closer.

One manifestation of that fear in recent weeks has been a sort of lashing out, an accusation of purity trolling at every diary that has the gall to criticize Obama.

But here's the thing: there has to be a difference between valid criticism of our candidate and purity trolling. And there have to be ways we can be critical of our candidate in constructive ways that will actually strengthen him going into November.

"What have I got to be proud about. I'm just gay; it's not like that's an accomplishment."

Those may not be the exact words of my friend Jason, but every year, back when I lived in Atlanta, as Pride weekend approached, he could be counted on, like clockwork, to utter some variation on that same sentence.

To Jason (and to many other gay men and lesbians I've known), Gay Pride doesn't have much meaning. It seems just to be a weekend when people dress up, march, dance, and perhaps drink a bit too much; a boozy party in the guise of something more.

And I have to admit, I've had cynical moments when I've felt like that was all it was too.

Follow me over the jump for a different perspective on the importance of Pride.

I can never vote for Barack Obama.

He doesn't believe everything I want a candidate to believe. His every decision is not the decision I want a candidate to make.

What kind of progressive disagrees with me on FISA? And on the Death Penalty?

If there's one thing I've learned in my 37 years of life, it's that anyone with a different opinion from mine is a traitor to all I believe in, and that giving support to anyone with any difference of opinion is an unacceptable compromise of my strong and pure and virtuous moral fiber.

So you see, it would be nearly sinful for me to vote for Obama.

A brutal attack on the part of the Memphis police against a transgender woman by all accounts is undergoing some internal investigation by the Memphis police; pressure needs to be put on them to insure that proper action is taken. Further, there needs to be greater media exposure of this brutal attack. Please read on to learn more about the attack, what is being done, and who you can contact to see that justice is served.

Via Pam's House Blend:

Follow me over the jump for more (and contact information for officials in Memphis).

For the past few years, I've been trying something that gets a little harder each year: I try to make an adjustment in my life that will reduce in some way my negative impact on the environment.

It started simply enough; like a lot of people I started recycling, and refusing the needless paper and plastic bags that every store wants to give you for every purchase no matter how small.

I moved to a city where I could get everywhere by public transportation. I started using those fancy corkscrew lightbulbs. I stopped drinking bottled water (and wondered why I had ever allowed myself to be convinced to start in the first place) and just keep a nice pitcher full in the fridge at any given time.

But the low-hanging fruit started to disappear. Last year rolled around, and I wondered what I would sacrifice next. I'm not a strong enough person to give up everything all at once. I have to do it little by little. And I am weak-- so very weak-- when temptation is present. So I have to simply remove temptation altogether.

You know, I was so happy when Obama finally passed the delegate threshold and Clinton announced she was going to concede. I was freaking thrilled.

There was a wave of early diaries aimed towards reconciliation that shot up the rec list. I thought it was a sign that Dailykos had turned a corner and would now be focusing again on the things that made me love this website in the first place: informative diaries on important progressive issues and substantive criticisms of our political opponents like, you know, McCain. And pootie pictures, of course.

And for a while, it seemed to be working that way. But this morning I wake up, and I see an anti-Clinton diary with a comments section full to bursting with anti-Clinton rants. Come on, people. Let it go.

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.