A year ago today, I was walking the streets of Tokyo with two friends from high school. It was the first time I had really gone somewhere outside the country (I won't count Canada and a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic), and I found it to be a truly enriching experience. It was so interesting being immersed completely in another culture, and trying to view the world through a different lens.

There was an interesting article in The New York Times earlier this week about some of the challenges couples are currently facing under Connecticut's civil unions legislation. The article profiles several couples who entered into civil unions in the state, and talks about some of their experiences since tying the knot, for lack of a better term. While civil unions grant all of the same state rights and responsibilities of marriage on paper (they are not recognized by the federal government), in practice things get a little messy at times.

With the Republican presidential nomination locked up for Sen. John McCain, all eyes are now on the Democrats. Both Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama scored some significant wins over the past week, but with the Pennsylvania nearly six weeks away, it gives us a little time to ponder some of the more minute details of the election thus far. There have certainly been some interesting trends in terms of what voting blocs have supported which candidate and in what states. One thing that I've been wondering about for a while, however, is how the GLBT vote has been swinging on the Democratic side?

In 2006 we had Brokeback Mountain and Transamerica, two Oscar-nominated movies that brought issues facing GLBT individuals to the forefront. Brokeback Mountain told the tale of the forbidden love between two cowboys in the 1960's and Transamerica told the story of a transgender woman who goes on a cross country journey with the son she didn't know she had. This year, the Oscar season brought another powerful film about GLBT issues to the forefront, a short documentary called Freeheld.

I have to admit that I’ve been pretty much glued to the presidential primary race over the past few weeks, watching all of the results come in live and reading the latest snippets of information about the campaigns. There have been a lot of ups and downs for the candidates, and some game-changing withdrawals from the race recently. There have also been a great deal of surprises that have shaken up contests that once seemed fairly static.