Battle of the Network Gays: September 17, 2009

Every week we pick the gays who we think have made the biggest splash in television (or pop culture in general) and leave it to you, the keepers of the flame, to decide who will be crowned Gay of the Week. We'll announce the winner in Friday's BGWE column, and that champ will reign until a new set of challengers are introduced the following week to try to steal his title.

Last week newly married couple Jim Verraros and Bill Brennan won your hearts and took the crown. This week a number of very strong candidates are in the running. We've got a fashion designer turned acclaimed director, a Glee club denizen with a poignant coming out scene, some same-sex ballroom dancers who charmed even Nigel Lythgoe, and a shameless (male) hussy on Melrose.

Check them out after the break, and vote for your favorite!

This week's contenders:

• Fashion designer and first-time director Tom Ford made a big splash at the Cannes Film Festival with the premiere of his first film, A Single Man. Not only did its star Colin Firth win the prize for best actor, but A Single Man also took the Queer Lion Award for best gay film! Oh, and the trailer  is absolutely gorgeous...

• Glee's Kurt Hummel (Chris Colfer) came out to his best friend Mercedes what was definitely the poignant highlight of a very uneven episode of Glee. Congrats to actor Chris Colfer for being able to turn on a dime and make the audience care about his mostly cartoonish queer character. (Our Glee recap here.)

Kurt comes out on Glee

• Same-sex ballroom dancers Jacob Jason and Willem de Vries were the perfect vehicle for So You Think You Can Dance judge Nigel Lythgoe to concede that maybe two guys dancing together is not so bad after all. Jacob and Willem's performance was good enough to land them a trip to Las Vegas. Even better was their quiet dignity in explaining their choice to dance together to the judges. (Our SYTYCD recap here.)

Jacob Jason and Willem de Vries face the SYTYCD judges

• The hotly anticipated (and very hot!) Caleb (Victor Webster) finally made his entrance on Melrose Place and while the jury is still out on the show, there's no denying that the morally ambiguous, hypersexual, unapologetic and commanding Caleb is unlike any gay character we've ever seen on network TV. (Our Melrose recap here.)

Caleb stirs things up on Melrose Place

Vote for your favorite by 10 PM EDT Today. And be sure to check back for tomorrow's BGWE column to see which network gay our readers have carried to glory!