Athletes Professional team sports have not always been the most accepting of environments for coming out. That changed significantly this year thanks to NBA center Jason Collins, MLS winger Robbie Rogers, and WNBA center Brittney Griner, who each came out this year.
Big Brother Alec Baldwin used gay slurs when harassed by the paparazzi, and Oprah claimed charges of racism against a Swiss handbag store, but the most enlightened racist and homophobic comments were being made all summer long by the contestants on CBS’ popular reality competition series.
Cher The music icon who previously claimed her “Farewell” concert tour would be her last, announced she’d be touring in 2014 to promote her new album, ironically titled Closer To The Truth.
Duck Dynasty It’s like the “Real Housewives” franchise, but for bears.
EDM Taking electronic dance music out of the underground and into the mainstream, music producers and DJs headlined as recording artists, including Avicci (“Wake Me Up”), Daft Punk (“Get Lucky”) , David Guetta (Play Hard), Calvin Harris (“Sweet Nothing”), Zedd (“Clarity”), Swedish House Mafia (“Don’t You Worry Child”) and Armin van Buuren (“This Is What It Feels Like”).
Fox Soon enough, no one will care what you say. Just ask Psy, the Disco Duck, anyone who’s done the Harlem Shake, and Jordy, that French baby who had the 90’s hit “Dur dur d’tre.”
Gaga Though her latest release Artpop, is still finding its audience, the performance artist’s Thanksgiving special with the Muppets, which included special guests Elton John and Rupaul couldn’t seem to find one at all.
Harris, Neil Patrick Officially the hardest working man in show business, thanks to hosting the Emmys, the Tonys and EPCOT’s Candlight Processional, kicking off the final season of How I Met Your Mother, appearing in The Smurfs 2, and starting pre-production on next year’s Broadway debut of Hedwig and the Angry Inch and that was just this year alone!
iTunes Not only did Mackelmore & Ryan Lewis “Same Love” and Kacey Musgraves’ “Follow Your Arrow” (plus lesbian twins Tegan & Sara) top sales charts, the songs also ruled radio airplay.
Jennifer Lawrence We’d gladly watch the actress trip and fall over and over again (like she did en route to accepting the Best Actress Oscar for her role in Silver Lining Playbook) if it meant more awards for her performances in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and American Hustle.
Kinky Boot When the cast of this year’s Tony award winner for Best Musical performed during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, conservatives blasted NBC for broadcasting it (Or, hiding behind the anonymity that only social media can provide, could it have been parents of all those Matilda and Annie kids, still bitter about their show’s losses?)
Liberace Mr. Showmanship lived on this year, not only with the award-winning HBO film Behind The Candelabra, but also as the inspiration behind the equally flamboyant Las Vegas-residency show “Lo Green is Loberace.”
Mrs. Carter Beyonce kicked off her year of domination by singing at the inauguration, or did she?!? Then her halftime performance literally caused the power to go out at the Super Bowl (allegedly). Despite getting her weave caught in one of her signature fan machines during a summer concert, Jay Z’s wife was still able to land a sponsorship for Loreal Feria hair color. She then closed out the year by outselling nearly every other 2013 album when she surprise-released her latest project with zero advance notice.
Netflix With original series Orange is the New Black and House of Cards, plus the return of Arrested Development, Netflix is the new, well, whatever it is you wanna call this type of program content provider.
Orcas While Universal Orlando opened a new attraction based on the toy-turned-movie franchise The Transformers (and not, as we were hoping, a thrill ride exploring pre- to post-op transgender issues), SeaWorld was left managing the negative publicity generated by the documentary “turned” concert series killer Blackfish.
Peacock Network NBC took some color out of its rainbow when it cancelled The New Normal and Smash, but then attempted to put some back in with Sean Saves The World and The Sound of Music: Live, bless their hearts.
Queer Cinema Dominated art houses with a riveting performance by Jared Leto as a transsexual living with AIDS in Dallas Buyers Club and the three-hour (Three!)-long lesbian exploratory flick Blue Is The Warmest Color.
Royals Lorde sang about them and Boy George became one! Well, not the former Culture Club singer, but rather Prince William and Kate Middleton’s baby.
Survival movies In perhaps the cruelest joke of all, 12 Years A Slave, Captain Phillips, All Is Lost and Gravity films that share a similar narrative will compete against each other to see who survives this year’s race for Best Picture.
Twerk Miley, did you realize your signature dance move is but one letter away from “Twerp?”
Utah Were you more surprised that the gay marriage proposal video that went viral was staged at a Home Depot in this Western state or, considering its location, that it wasn’t a lesbian couple?
Vodka Backlash against a rise of state-sponsored homophobia in Russia turned bottles of Stolichnaya into collateral damage in the global fight for equality. (For the record, Stolia’s main ingredient raw alcohol distilled from grain is made in Russia; the final product is filtered and blended in Latvia, with water from Latvian springs.) But not everything associated with Mother Russia was deemed bad. The Americans, an FX series about two KGB spies posing as a married couple living in Washington DC in the 1980s, saw ratings success; season two is expected to debut during the Sochi Olympics this February.
Wentworth Miller Not only were we elated when he came out (yeah, we know those tattoos were fake, but did you see him on Prison Break?), but we were more impressed with the how. The actor declined an invitation to appear at a Russian film festival, calling the current attitude toward and treatment of gay men and women by the Russian government unacceptable.
X Sure gay marriage is all the rage, but what about gay divorce and break-ups? If couples like Zachary Quinto & Jonathan Groff and Jane Lynch & Lara Embry can’t make it work, what chance do the rest of us have? (Yes, we know technically it’s ex, but give us a break; there’s a reason the letter’s worth 8 points in Scrabble.)
Young gays Maybe Whitney was right; if we teach them well, they’ll lead the way like Jack Andraka, a gay 15-year-old science prodigy who developed a low-cost dipstick-type test for quick and early detection of certain cancers, and Cassidy Lynn Campbell, a 16-year-old transgender student who documented her transition on YouTube and was voted Homecoming Queen of her Orange County, Calif., high school.
Zombies Still in vogue, thanks to the continued success of The Walking Dead coupled with box office faves World War Z and the first ever zom-com, Warm Bodies.
