After reading your emails and comments, we now have our nominees!

Ilene Chaiken
Ellen DeGeneres
Melissa Etheridge
Rosie O’Donnell

Read the biographies below and then cast your vote to the poll on the right! Your vote counts so cast one today!

Ilene Chaiken – writer, producer, screenwriter, and Gay!

Ilene Chaiken is the creator, writer and executive producer of the television series The L Word. She created the first show with a nearly all-lesbian ensemble that speaks directly to lesbian issues. As a result of the show’s success and reoccurring toping in Season 1, the show has spawned its own social networking site OurChart, which also includes blogs, podcasts, and promotes LGBT pop culture, news, and events. Chaiken often contributes her own blog entries.

Prior to The L Word, Chaiken had written the screenplay Barb Wire (1996), and the television films Dirty Pictures (2000), and Damaged Care (2002). She was also the coordinating producer for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air and the associate producer for Satisfaction in 1988. Prior to writing and producing, she worked as an agent trainee for Creative Artists Agency, and as an executive for Aaron Spelling and Quincy Jones Entertainment.

Ilene just received the GLAAD Davidson/Valentini Award May 11, 2008. The award is presented to an openly lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender media professional who has made a significant difference in promoting equal rights for our community.

Chaiken’s [ex-partner] is English architect Miggi Hood. They have twin daughters.

Ellen DeGeneres – comedian, author, actress, talk show host, and Gay!

Ellen DeGeneres attracted massive media attention when she came out as a lesbian, on the self-titled show Ellen, in 1997. She further backed up her admission by appearing on the covers of national magazines. The caption accompanying her photograph on the cover of Time read, “Yep, I’m Gay.” That cover sealed her fate as TV’s first gay lead character.

Unfortunately Ellen was cancelled due to failing ratings. However, DeGeneres kept busy by writing a book, My Point … And I Do Have One, and releasing an album collection of stand-up material called Taste This, and staring her first leading role, called Mr. Wrong. Meanwhile, her series was picked up in syndication by both the Lifetime and the Oxygen channels.

DeGeneres returned to TV in 2001 with the CBS sitcom, The Ellen Show. However, low viewer ship led to another canceled sitcom.

Failed sitcoms aside, Ellen received wide exposure on November 4, 2001, when she served as hostess of the Emmy Awards. She had the challenge of hosting the show after the 9/11/01 attacks – a time requiring a more somber tone and sensitive material. She memorably delivered the following line: “We’re told to go on living our lives as usual, because to do otherwise is to let the terrorists win, and really, what would upset the Taliban more than a gay woman wearing a suit in front of a room full of Jews?” She received several standing ovations throughout the monologue!

In 2003, DeGeneres was the voice of “Dory,” in the summer 2003 hit animated Disney/Pixar film Finding Nemo. Finding Nemo was a box office hit! The movie returned DeGeneres to the limelight, with critics giving her rave reviews.

Also in 2003, DeGeneres launched a daytime television talk show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show. DeGeneres’ show was nominated for eleven Daytime Emmy Awards in its freshman season, winning four, including Best Talk Show. The show has had continued great success and has even topped Oprah in ratings! Ellen is known for ending each show’s opening monologue by dancing around her audience. This iconic reference led her dancing into a new ad campaign for American Express in 2004. She has been appearing in re-occurring commercials ever since.

Ellen was selected once again as host of the 2005 Primetime Emmy Awards ceremony, which was held on September 18, 2005. She also hosted the 79^th Academy Awards in February 2007.

Since 2004, DeGeneres has been in a relationship with Portia de Rossi. DeGeneres and de Rossi. After the overturn of the same-sex marriage ban in California, DeGeneres announced on her May 16, 2008 talk show which had taped the preceding day that she and Portia de Rossi are engaged to be married.

Ellen has used the success of her talk show to help give back to charitable causes like the Susen B. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, a cause close to Ellen’s heart since her mother, Betty DeGeneres, is a breast cancer survivor. Ellen devotes a page of The Ellen DeGeneres Show website to highlight and provide links to other such charitable causes. She also uses on air time to voice her opinion in an effort to raise awareness about important current events and issues.

Melissa Etheridge – singer-songwriter, musician, author, activist, and GAY!

In 1986, Etheridge was signed by Island Records. Etheridge has released ten albums in her career. Three of them have gone multi-platinum: Melissa Etheridge (1988), Yes I Am (1993) and Your Little Secret (1995). Two others went platinum and two more gold.

In January 1993, Melissa came out publicly as a lesbian in January 1993 at the Triangle Ball, a gay/lesbian celebration of President Bill Clinton’s first inauguration. She has been a gay activist ever since. In August 2007, she co-moderated a Democratic Presidential Debate hosted by the HRC and aired on LOGO. She is also supports environmental issues and in 2006 toured in North America in vehicles only using biodiesel. Her devotion to the environment led to her participation on theme song, I Need to Wake Up, for the Al Gore-moderated documentary, An Inconvenient Truth. Melissa won an Academy Award for that song.

Breast Cancer Research and Awareness is also dear to Melissa. In October 2004, Melissa was diagnosed with breast cancer and under went chemotherapy. Her treatment was successful. She supports the Pink Bracelet Fund, an organization founded by her fans shortly after Melissa was diagnosed.

Melissa and her partner Tammy Lynn Michaels, have two twin boys. Melissa also has two children from her past relationship with Julie Cypher.

Rosie O’Donnell – Television personality, blogger, and GAY!

Rosie O’Donnell – comedian, talk show host, author, actress, magazine editor, celebrity blogger, LGBT civil rights activist, television producer, and collaborative partner in the LGBT family vacation company R Family Vacations. Oh …and Gay!

O’Donnell started her comedy career as a teenager. Her break was on the talent show Star Search. A TV show, Gimme a Break (1986) and a series of movies, including A League of Their Own, Sleepless in Seattle and The Flintstones, introduced the comic to a wider audience. In 1996 she started hosting The Rosie O’Donnell Show which won multiple Emmy awards.

During her years on The Rosie O’Donnell Show she wrote her first book, a memoir called Find Me and a developed a reputation for charitable philanthropy. She used the book’s $3 million advance to establish the For All Kids foundation and promoted numerous other charity schemes and projects encouraging other celebrities on her show to also take part. O’Donnell came out two months before finishing her talk show run, saying that her primary reason was to bring attention to gay adoption issues.

Rosie has had some stints on Broadway. Her most notable role was as Betty Rizzo in Grease. She financed and produced the 2003 Broadway musical, Taboo, but that production failed quickly!

In 2006 O’Donnell became one of The View’s moderators boosting ratings and attracting controversies with her liberal views and strong personality, dominating many of the conversations. Her strong opinions resulted in notable controversies resulting in a mutual agreement to cancel her contract.

2007 was a busy year for O’Donnell. She released her second memoir, Celebrity Detox, which focuses on her struggles with fame and her time at The View. Rosie also was a guess on the True Colors Tour, visiting 15 cities (this year she will be a regular on the 2008 Tour). The Big Gay Sketch Show, which Rosie executive produces, kicked of it’s first season April 2007. The show is now airing its second season. And Rosie, like many lesbians out there, even entered the bloggling world with her video blog located on her website www.Rosie.com.

Rosie lives with her wife Kelli Carpenter and their four children in Nyack, New York.