Though filled with both triumph and heartbreak, 2009 is a year I’ll personally be glad to forget. But I’ll still raise a toast tonight in it’s honor, celebrating all the tremendous progress our community has made, while mindful of the painful setbacks we’ve suffered. And as I look forward to 2010, it will be with a renewed sense of optimism, hopeful that we will continue to make progress, that fewer rights will be denied, and less lives lost.

In that spirit we wish everyone a safe and prosperous New Year, full of joy and hope and a better future for us all.

Assisted by the vocal stylings of George Michael and the Muppets, Inside, Looking Out would like to extend everyone a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!

George Michael’s “December Song”

The Muppets “Ringing of the Bells”

Now it’s off to see Nine, Avatar or Up in the Air!

It seems teabaggers took Senator Coburn’s instructions to heart and prayed that one of the sixty senators expected to vote for healthcare reform would fail to show up for a crucial vote. A caller into C-Span this morning said he and his fellow tea baggers held a vigil and prayed for the death of Senator Byrd from West Virginia. Watch:

Teabaggers and religious wackos praying for the death of public servants is certainly nothing new. But having a senator initiate that call to action is an entirely different matter. It only takes one inhinged individual to do us ALL harm. Just one.

Washington D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty appeared in church today to sign the District’s new marriage equality bill into law. From the Washington Post:

Fenty signed in front of 150 activists and same-sex couples — many of whom say they plan to marry — in the sanctuary of All Souls Unitarian in Mount Pleasant.

“We knew this day would come,” Fenty said. “I say to the world: An era of struggle ends for thousands in Washington, D.C. . . . Our city is taking a leap forward.”

Before he signed the bill, Fenty spoke of his interracial upbringing, noting it was illegal for his parents to get married 40 years ago.

“This is one of the churches my parents would have brought me to when I was a boy,” he said as his parents sat among advocates in a second pew. “Things have a way of coming full circle. When you’re mayor.”

It is widely expected that the law will pass a congressional review, despite the best efforts of  Utah Representative Jason Chaffetz, who pledges to block the bill.

Video from the signing below: