A year has passed and another one has just begun. I hope you live your life in 2025 with no regrets and have a positive outlook for 2026. We wish you all the best in your health and happiness.
For me, 2025 was a good year. There are no new health issues unless you consider a recent root canal. Friends make fun of me if it sucks for me, life will be okay. But then they couldn’t sit in the dentist’s chair for three hours. As you know, if you’re reading this at Blade, I write about politics. The felon in the White House always makes sure he has something to write about. Unfortunately, it’s 99% bad. He recently said he would intervene in Europe and support far-right parties. No surprise to him and his fascist-leaning regime. Again, you know, I always call him “felon,” which is my most polite name for him. He has a lot of horrible incompetents around him, but the really scary ones are fascists like OMB’s Russell Vought, who wrote Project 2025, and his personal Goebbels, Stephen Miller. They are proposing policies that destroy lives. A lot doesn’t affect me, but it creates a certain amount of guilt in how I live my life. I am white, privileged, cisgender, older, and male, which allows me to escape the direct effects of some of the worst things happening in the world today. Almost all are perpetrated or supported by the evil SOB in the White House. There he has another name.
As long as I continue to receive Social Security and Medicare pays 80% of my doctor’s fees, I should be fine. In 2025, I still had coffee with my friends every morning. At Java House in Washington, DC. In Rehoboth Beach, coffee millowned by my friends Mel Damaskuna and Bob Cartwright.
My regular column allows me to vent and comment about the world. My second column is the Blade’s Comings & Goings column. This allows us to share in the successes of many in the LGBTQ community. We have a really great community and I’m so proud to be a part of it. In 2025, I also started writing my second book, a book about politics, but I won’t hold my breath until the publication date. I’m also the theater critic for Georgetown Dish. You can watch as many plays as you like and share your impressions. Let me tell you, I call myself a pundit, not a critic. I always try to have something good to say about every production, even if I don’t recommend others to see it. Perhaps a good actor, a good set designer, even a terrible production always has something good to offer.
I am fortunate to continue to travel. Now it’s even on cruise ships. It’s great to know where the bathroom is once you unpack it. Last year I went on two cruises and Blade was kind enough to share my blog with me. One is a once-in-a-lifetime cruise to the Norwegian fjords and North Pole, something I’ve wanted to do for over 40 years. 12 days on Celebrity APEX from Southampton. It was great and met all my expectations. The second is my recent transatlantic cruise, which I do every year with a large group of friends from home and abroad. It was 13 nights from Rome to Ft. Lauderdale. I have already made a reservation for next October. 16 nights from Barcelona to Miami on Celebrity XCEL. We have two cruises booked for 2027. One is a transatlantic crossing and the other is a river cruise on Portugal’s Douro River. If you love cruising, or at least cruising on water, feel free to join us.
Overall, 2025 was a good year. We look forward to the same in 2026. We are looking forward to more trips in June, including a barge trip from Lyon to Paris through the canals of Burgundy. I hope you have good health, spend time with good friends, and write more. Additionally, I promise my friends and community that I will continue to fight with and for you to make our lives better. I will demonstrate against felons and their policies and work hard to elect Democrats, especially my friends. Zach Wallsrunning for the Iowa Senate. I stand up and speak out for my transgender friends and immigrant friends who are being threatened by felons.
I hope you all will join me and do everything in your power to take back this country. I’m also looking forward to seeing many of you on the cruise, but definitely here on the front lines back home. Together, we can work to ensure everyone can live the life they want and deserve in 2026 and beyond. It will once again be the land of the free and the home of the brave.
Peter Rosenstein She has been an active LGBTQ rights and Democratic Party activist for many years.
The post “Pledge to Keep Fighting in 2026” first appeared on Washington Blade: LGBTQ News, Politics, LGBTQ Rights, Gay News.
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