With Senator-elect Raphael Warnock’s victory and Jon Ossoff running ahead in the vote count in Tuesday’s Georgia’s Senate runoffs, it’s looking likely the Democrats will win back control of the upper chamber for the first time since 2010.

With Democrats in control of the House, Senate, and the White House, the stage is set for a laundry list of center-left legislation to be passed and signed into law, including environmental protections, gun control, and buffs to the Affordable Care Act, legislation that has been roundly ignored by soon-to-be Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell for the last decade.

Among the first priorities Democrats are expected to take up will be the Equality Act. The bill, at its base, would add LGBTQ people to the list of protected classes under federal civil rights law. It would also modernize existing law to incorporate public services like ride-sharing apps under the definition of “public accommodations.” Additionally, it would represent the largest expansion of sex-based protections under federal law in the last 50 years. …

Goodbye 2020, and fuck you.

The year of our lord 2020 was, by every measurable metric except growth in the number and wealth of American billionaires, the worst year of my life.

This was the year of a major political party dismissing the corruption of an impeached American president, and a year in which people followed primary electoral candidates like sports fan, and a general election that wasn’t close but half the population has to pretend it was close to satisfy the whims of a giant, entitled manbaby.

This was the year of a once-a-century global pandemic that made wealthy white people upset at not being able to eat at restaurants, a pandemic that murdered 1 out of every 1000 Americans, and a pandemic that ruined careers, bank accounts, and life savings. …

On Monday morning, noted Substack blogger Andrew Sullivan claimed in British right wing publication The Spectator that lesbians are “going extinct,” bemoaning the alleged loss of lesbians he thinks should take care of him when he gets old or becomes infirm or sick.

It’s a frequent hobbyhorse for The Spectator, which seems to publish this exact argument on a once-quarterly basis. Most recently Andrew Sullivan wannabe Chadwick Moore claimed in the publication that actor Elliot Page’s coming out as trans was a loss for American lesbians in early December. Moore wrote essentially the same piece earlier this year in January.

Interesting, isn’t it, how so many of these articles come from cis gay men? Patriarchy-but-gay is still patriarchy. Being gay doesn’t exempt men from paternalism. …

This week it’s time for me to once again sign up for health insurance for next year through the Affordable Care Act. The process easily ranks high on my list of least favorite things to do every year. It’s a soul-sucking experience, deciding which corporation is going to profit from whether or not I get sick or injured in 2021.

The plans are all expensive, ranging from $200 to $500 a month just for me personally, and laughable deductibles larger than my savings account balance and credit card available balances combined. …

We know for a fact President-elect Joe Biden won the 2020 election, but I don’t think Donald Trump is going anywhere.

Over the last two weeks and change, the Trump has refused to acknowledge that he lost the election, instead stoking conspiracy theories and latching onto half-baked legal challenges in a desperate attempt to maintain legitimacy.

With his party and many key government officials marching in virtual lockstep behind him, what the president is attempting to do could have rightfully been called a coup.

But late Monday, the General Services Administration declared Biden as the official winner and signed off on beginning the presidential transition of power. While seemingly everyone assumed Trump would rather be dragged out of the White House, Trump signaled that he supported the GSA decision, for the first time, it seems, implicitly acknowledging he did not win a second term in office. …

President-elect Joe Biden ended up winning a closer-than-the-polls-showed election, but down-ballot Democrats across the country weren’t so lucky. Democratic candidates failed to take a clean majority in the Senate; they now need to sweep the two Georgia run-off elections set for this January. In the House, Democrats lost much of their majority, which they had expected to expand earlier this year.

The finger-pointing started almost immediately, with establishment Democrats blaming the party’s left-wing for losses within their own ranks, saying that activist slogans like “defund the police,” or policies like the Green New Deal were an anchor around the necks of Democratic candidates in swing districts. …

In what is quickly becoming a quadrennial tradition, pundits, and centrist politicians have hopped on the “blame the tr*nnies” bandwagon to explain why Democrats lost several eminently winnable races this year.

Former Missouri Senator Claire McCaskill blamed this year’s weak Democratic sown ballot election performance on “cultural issues” like abortion, gay rights, and her party’s support for “transsexual” rights in an appearance on MSNBC Wednesday night.

Four years ago, it was the likes of the New York Times’ Frank Bruni, The Washington Post’s Charles Krauthammer, and even Saturday Night Live repeating the refrain.

Despite the commonality of this claim, there again, like four years ago, is simply no evidence to back it up. Trans issues were largely ignored this election cycle, by everyone. …

I was supposed to write an election-related post today. It was a cool idea I was excited to write. But when I sat down this morning to write it, the words just wouldn’t come forth.

This is not the first time lately that this has happened to me. For a professional writer like me, it’s very concerning, to say the least.

The truth is I’m a mess. The state of my apartment is disgusting, with dishes piling up in the sink, takeout bags next to my couch and a box for some shelves I put together weeks ago still laying on my living room floor. …