Happy New Year, JMG Community!

Another action-packed year has come and gone for this here website thingy, which in a few months will mark its 13th anniversary. I want to sincerely thank all of you, longtime JMGers and newbies alike, for coming along on the insane roller coaster that 2016 has been. We finished the year at right around 40 million pageviews, a number I never could have imagined when JMG began in those heady pre-Facebook days when it seemed like everybody had a blog. As I mention in this post every year, writing a news site is like a homework assignment that is never done, but is always due. Nevertheless, you all make it a lot easier with your emails, your story tips, and your encouragement.

In my New Year’s message last year, I said that when they write the history of our movement, 2015 will be right up there next to Stonewall. That will always be true, but as we all know, 2016 has cast an ominous cloud over the hard-fought advances won by the LGBT rights movement during the Obama administration. (The post immediately preceding this one is just one painful example of that.) But while the movement will definitely be playing defense for foreseeable future, please don’t lose heart. In the past eight years we’ve gained countless new allies and emboldened an entire new generation of young activists who will join us in this fight. Encourage them and help train them by your example.

I thank you all for your robust opinions and for making the JMG comments section the most lively in the entire homo-blogosphere. I’m happy to have met so many of you at JMG meetups and look forward to meeting many more of you over the next year. Tonight, I’ll be raising my glass to each and every one of our flying monkeys. I’ll be raising it a lot! The coming year will be difficult, but each of you, merely by being out and proud, are warriors in our battle. Never forget that. Onward to 2017 and FUCK the haters!