The People We Love: Who — and Why They Made 2017 Memorable

For over 15 years, it’s been a Metrosource tradition to end the year with a salute to a select group of People We Love.

From a list of nearly 100 candidates, we carve out a selection of people who’ve had a truly memorable effect on the LGBT community during the past year. Some of them we have covered earlier in the year but have important updates to share. Some were delightful surprises that we didn’t realize we would love until we saw them. And many are folks whose work is deserving of praise; we just hadn’t gotten around to them yet.

Who made this year’s list? Well, we’ll begin unveiling them officially December 11 and spend the next month revealing who made the cut and why. But among the crew, you’ll find a modern television auteur who blew us away with the year’s sexiest new show, a pair of podcasters whose frank and fabulous conversations offered us hours of delight, a movie star who took on a beguiling bisexual role and an icon whose contributions to the struggle for marriage equality will never be forgotten.

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It’s also an important opportunity for us to recognize those who are doing good in our community, and this year we took special care to encourage the inclusion of more people who are helping others through philanthropy, service and political representation. Meet a young woman who organized an anti-bullying movement that became a global phenomenon, a peer educator helping the citizens of the Brox step out of the shadows and a certain trans political candidate who recently made big headlines by winning a hotly contested race. This year, we aimed to make our list more exciting and dynamic than ever by turning to our community partners for nominees, and they did not disappoint.

We are so thrilled to bring you this sneak preview of the 2017 People We Love. We hope that you’ll see among them some of your favorite people of the past year and also discover someone fabulous you’ve yet to meet. And even as we gear up to reveal this year’s winners, we’re also looking ahead to next year’s. In the meantime, we hope you’ll comment with one of the People You Love for 2017 — or someone you think we should consider for 2018. We’re always excited to hear from you!

View the complete history of the People We Loved through the years:

2017
Ryan Murphy
Danica Roem
Lena Waithe
Difficult People
Nick Jonas
Sean Coleman
The Makers of One Day at a Time
Sam Smith
Valerie Weisler
Kathy Tu & Tobin Low
Matt Tumminello
Naomi Watts
Randy Rainbow
Cheyenne Jackson
Edith Windsor
Brian Rafferty
Pink

2016
Tom Ford
Ryan Reynolds
President Barack Obama
Makers of Crazy Ex Girlfriend
Lee Pace
Sarah Paulson
Celine Dion
The Wachowski Sisters
Chelsea Handler
Lady Gaga
Laverne Cox

2015
Lily Tomlin
Eddie Redmayne
Creators of Fun Home
Creators of Carol
Charles Leslie
Caitlyn Jenner
Lin Manuel Miranda
Creators of Empire
Susan Sarandon
John Oliver
Grace Jones

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