Battle of the Network Gays: October 8, 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, Adam Lambert took the crown in a big way for scoring the top spot on the Amazon album sales chart - when he doesn't even have an album yet. This week we've got four new contenders vying for the throne: A globetrotting shopper, an out-in-print young TV star, a gay soldier ably debating DADT, or a scheming gay soap stud.

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

This week's contenders:

• Keith Johnson is the "found objects buyer" for high end store Anthropologie. This week he launched his new reality show on the Sundance Channel called Man Shops Globe. Of particular interest to AfterElton.com readers is his 35 year relationship with partner Glen Senk (who also happens to be his boss). You can check out our interview with Johnson here.

Ketih Johnson and Glen Senk

• Chris Colfer, the apple-cheeked young actor who plays Kurt Hummel on Glee for effectively coming out in print in an interview in The Advocate.  Chris' character Kurt has several times been in the running for Gay of the Week (and even won twice), but this is the first time that the actor playing him gets a nod. 

• Lt. Dan Choi took on staunch Christianist and DADT defender Elaine Donnelly on AC360 Tuesday night. (Video and full transcript here.)

Lt. Dan Choi and Elaine Donnelly

• Finally we have One Life to Live's Nick. The character is a high school teacher, a gay rights advocate, and this week he just got exponentially more interesting what with his secret scheming with Dorian's lesbian campaign manager. Is he a good guy or a bad guy? Either way, he's up for Gay of the Week.

OLTL's Nick (Nicholas Rodriguez)

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