There may have been no openly glbt people included in this year's national New Year's Honours list but there are plenty of people who have made remarkable and positive contributions to gay people's lives, either directly or indirectly. So, as we do every year, GayNZ.com salutes, in more or less alphabetical order, some of the folk who have done more than most in the past year to enrich and enhance our lives. CHRIS BANKS While Communications Manager for the NZ AIDS Foundation Banks honed that organisation into a ruthlessly active and, more importantly, proactive media player, taking the fight against HIV and stigmatisation of men at risk of contracting the debilitating disease to new levels of strategic and operational rigour. The strain took its toll, he backed off and took his skills to another NGO, but while he was there Banks was one of the best staffers the NZAF ever had - and one of the glbt communities' best ever defenders of our right to be free from bigotry, discrimination and abuse. CHRIS BRICKELL Chris Brickell For decades to come Chris Brickell's well-researched and beautifully written Mates GayNZ.com staff - 1st January 2009