Well, at least according to TIME magazine. Sometimes news is found in the silence or in the absence. In this case, TIME has issued it's prestigious Person of The Year Issue which features the highly respected People Who Mattered, some 25 or so movers and shakers, the good, the bad and even the ugly.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the fanatic hate mongering president of Iran; Kanye West (because he said George Bush doesn't like Black people); Geena Davis (because she's paving the way for Hillary Clinton, according to TIME); Michelle Wie, a golfer; Darth Vader, a fictional character; and some other notables all mattered in 2005.
It's interesting to contemplate that, according to TIME, Kanye West, Darth Vader and Geena Davis (who doesn't really matter but she plays a person who matters on TV) all matter much more than Scheryl Swoopes, Sir Elton John, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, Marc Cherry, Brian Paddick, V. Gene Robinson, Lupe Valdez. As you consider this list of extraordinary and groundbreaking gay men and women, you can wonder why it was that TIME magazine could not find one openly gay man or woman to include among the People Who Mattered of 2005.
Oops, they forgot? Leading the first nation to legalize gay marriage didn't matter? Standing out and proud as the world's most powerful cop didn't matter? Running the Sheriff's Department in a major American city didn't matter?
I think that it is safe to characterize 2005 as one of the most important and significant years in the history of gay men and woman around the world. From what seems to be an unstoppable wave of major nations providing full civil rights to gay men and women to a coalition of gay rights leaders reversing a horrible homophobic decision at Ford that would have represented a major victory for bigotry in this country, 2005 has been one of the most remarkable years for homosexuals since 1969.
Surely, in this environment, TIME could have found one out and proud pioneer to represent this spectacular year in gay history?
Richard J. Rothstein
New York City
Proceed At Your Own Risk
(http://rjr10036.typepad.com)