Presenting The 2010 AfterElton Hot 100!

The winner of the 2010 AfterElton.com Hot 100 is …Ramin Setoodeh from Newsweek!

Just kidding. Truthfully, we can’t imagine anything less appealing than the attitudes expressed by this out gay journalist who recently argued, ridiculously, that gay actors can’t play straight roles.

So who did come out on top? If you’re the kind of person who opens your Christmas presents early, go here to find the start of the list.

The three of you left might be interested to know that the most noteworthy thing about this year’s list is that the top seven positions are occupied by out gay men, five of whom are actors; last year, only the top three were out gay men, and only four of the top ten were gay.

Of the entire list, 26 were out gay or bisexual men — up from 20 last year. And for those who really like statistics, our 2008 list had 18 out gay/bi men — and that was up from 15 in 2007. That’s a pretty great progression, no?

We here at AfterElton.com certainly think so. There is nothing hotter than a gay or bisexual man with the courage to be open and honest about himself. And how great is it that we live in an era where that’s increasingly becoming the norm?

For our fourth annual list, gay and bisexual male readers of AfterElton.com nominated over 1800 different men.

As usual, the final list is made up mostly of TV, movie, and Broadway actors: 88 in all. Only twelve come from some other field: musicians Adam Lambert, Ricky Martin, Kris Allen, Jason Mraz, and Jay Brannan; athletes David Beckham, Ben Cohen, Gareth Thomas, and Matthew Mitcham; journalist Anderson Cooper; screenwriter Dustin Lance Black; and designer and film director Tom Ford.

Overall, thirty-one new faces made the list, which we think is a nice turnover. Who are some of the new faces? Well, the sensation that is Glee rocketed five entries onto the chart: Jonathan Groff, Chris Colfer, Matthew Morrison, Mark Salling, and Cory Monteith.

What, no Kevin McHale? (He did get votes, but just didn’t make the top 100.)

Want to read what some of the winners, including Neil Patrick Harris and Jesse Tyler Ferguson, had to say about making the list? Neil was cheeky and Jesse felt moved to do a haiku.

There is a bit of unpleasant news. Only six men on the Hot 100 (Ricky Martin, Taye Diggs, Wilson Cruz, Darryl Stephens, Gael Garcia Bernal and Eddie Cibrian) are men of color – down from seven last year, and down from nine the year before. We think this speaks to the relative lack of racial minorities – especially Asian men – among the ranks of TV and movie celebrities (from which most Hot 100 picks come from). But it’s also worth asking: do some gay and bisexual men need to broaden their image of what it means to be hot?

Before you head off to see who ended up where on the list, we also think it’s worth asking: why does the AfterElton.com Hot 100 matter? We confess that when we first started doing this four years ago, we simply thought of it as something fun – a nice, frivolous change from some of the more “serious” journalism we do on this site.

But this year, we’ve been struck by the incredible passion of our readers when discussing their picks. Spend a few minutes reading the discussions and scanning the endless pictures posted, and it’s impossible not to come to the conclusion that this list is somehow … empowering. Too often gay male sexuality has been denied and ignored by the greater society, unless those against gay rights are somehow demonizing us for it.

With the announcement of these results, news of your choices will spread far and wide, bringing positive attention to the whole idea of gay and bisexual men celebrating and appreciating male beauty, and allowing all of us, through social media like Facebook and Twitter, to more fully integrate all aspects of our lives.

One more fun-fact about this year’s results: out of nearly 30,000 votes registered, Tom Cruise got a grand total of four votes. Ouch.

One reminder: No doubt folks will have a lot to say about the list, but please don't reveal the winner in your comment's subject line since some folks like to be surprised. Finally, we kindly ask that you do not copy and reproduce the entire Hot 100 anywhere else. We work very hard putting this together and ask that you just link back to the list.

Next page: This year's Hot 100!