Out, Out! Waaay Out!

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People come and people go, and this—our league table of America’s most influential gay men and women—reflects an awful lot of coming and going since it debuted in 2007.

Although Ellen DeGeneres finds herself back in pole position, many names have fallen or dropped out altogether (au revoir Rosie), while others have rocketed up (Rich Ross, Tom Ford) as their successes warrant. And then there are those we never saw coming, such as one Adam Lambert, whose attention-grabbing run on American Idol was largely interpreted as a referendum on tolerance.

Not everyone has to be a Lambert fan to appreciate the power of his position to influence our cultural and social attitudes for the better—one of several factors taken into consideration when compiling this list. The others are political clout, individual wealth, and a person’s media profile. And as always, new entries are marked with a star, with arrows indicating changes from last year’s rank.

01- Ellen DeGeneres 02- Barney Frank 03- Anderson Cooper 04- Rachel Maddow 05- Adam Lambert 06- Barry Diller 07- Neil Patrick Harris 08- Joe Solmonese 09- Tammy Baldwin 10- Jared Polis

11- Marc Jacobs 12- Rich Ross 13- Tom Ford 14- Tim Gill 15- Matt Drudge 16- Jann Wenner 17- Fred Hochberg 18- David Geffen 19- Gene Robinson 20- Scott Rudin 21- Peter Thiel 22- Richard Berke 23- Christine Quinn 24- Anthony Romero 25- Lee Daniels 26- Perez Hilton 27- Suze Orman 28- Dan Choi 29- Chad Griffin 30- Dustin Lance Black

31- Andrew Sullivan 32- Alan Ball 33- Bryan Lourde & Kevin Huvane 34- Nick Denton 35- Michael Patrick King 36- Wanda Sykes 37- Robert Hanson 38- Andrew Tobias 39- Martha Nelson 40- Adam Moss 41- Jodie Foster 42- Rufus Gifford 43- Gus Van Sant 44- Thom Browne 45- John Cooper 46- Jim Nelson 47- Tim Gunn 48- Brook Colangelo 49- Simon Halls & Stephen Huvane 50- Urvashi Vaid