Battle of the Network Gays: August 6, 2009

Every week we pick the gays who we think have made the biggest splash in television 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 on Monday, and that champ will reign until a new set of challengers are introduced the following week to try to steal his title.

Last week, the incomparable Kathy Griffin took the crown, this despite being only an honorary gay. This week's challengers all have admirable claims to the throne and we suspect the vote is going to be close.

Check them out, and vote for your favorite!

This week's contenders:

Kyle Lewis (Brett Claywell) of One Life to Live. Why? After weeks of privately pining for his closeted college sweetheart, this week (today in fact) Kyle will finally get his guy. For a kiss, anyway!

The wait is over: Kyle finally plants one on Fish

Stephen Hampton. Why? The out gay Mormon was the only male contestant on season 2 of Paris Hilton's BFF, and he made it all the way to the top three before getting eliminated last week. He received a battle of the network gays nomination last week for that accomplishment, but he didn't win and we thought we'd heard the last of him. Imagine everyone's surprise in this week's BFF finale, when Paris Hilton announces she made a mistake eliminating Stephen - and crowns him her BFF!

Fate (and Paris Hilton) can be so fickle.

Stephen Hampton

Griffin (Brando Eaton) who this week made his grand entrance as a gay best friend and sidekick on ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager. Why? See photo below.

Oliver Fish (Scott Evans) from One Life to Live. It's sort of ironic, the out gay actor playing the tortured, closeted half of OLTL's much-anticipated gay couple. We're curious who will prove more popular in this Battle of the Network Gays: Kyle or Fish?

Vote for your favorite by 11 PM EDT Sunday. And be sure to check back Monday on the blog to see which network gay our readers have carried to glory!