Every year many people make life better for glbt New Zealanders. In ways obvious or subtle they impact on our lives, or some of our lives, and our communities and NZ as a whole are better for it. But a few seem to stand out from the rest and it is those few that GayNZ.com acknowledges every year in our New Year's Honours list. For 2009 the GayNZ.com Honours go to... Aaron and its a beacon of hope to those whose journey out of the closet is more tortuous than most. John Key - for going where no PM has gone before It's too early to make any sort of summation of Prime Minister John's Key's leadership of the country or his effect on social issues but we decided to give him a gong for sheer guts. Name one senior NZ politician in, say, the last 2 million years, who would have danced on stage with a couple of unpredictable and mouthy drag queens while the nation's news cameras were capturing every self-conscious twitch and jiggle. Better yet, name one senior politician who could have carried it off! Key's boogying with Buffy OUTLine October was a full-on month of money-seeking mayhem where new pledges daily and keen bucket-shaking volunteers let the OUTLine phone counseling and support crew know we wouldn't let them go down without a fight! The target was $30k, but at last count the funds raised were edging up to almost $40k. Take a bow, OUTLine October crew Glenn Sims, Julian Cooke, Cherry Sonderer and the dozens of supporting volunteers, organisations and businesses for your frenzied fundraising efforts through October. Leanne Pooley - for a stunning lesbo-doco-movie The Topp Twins' by now well-documented lives were always going to make a nice little doco movie: lots of historical footage, lots of charm, lots of gingham, yodelling, heeps of sheeps, all the ingredients were there and waiting. But the Topp Twins' moviemaker Pooley took the elements we all know and love and somehow crafted a movie of rare insight and warmth. Now the highest-grossing Kiwi doco movie ever, and a cult hit around the globe, Topp Twins: Untouchable Girls fuses the twins' story with a sense of what it is to be New Zealanders. In celebrating our most beloved lesbian sisters it also celebrates the four million Kiwis who have embraced them like family. Cissy Rock - for operating outside the ghettoes Let's be honest, gay community for most folk conjures up visions of Karangahape road, Gay Lynn, some of the tonier inner-Wellington suburbs and Lichfield street on a good night. And if you're straight, the Hero Parade. And if you're a photo-journalist, drag queens. But in the suburbs and hinterland there are of course folk living glbt lives and just a few whose mission is to enrich the lives of their brothers and sisters. Such a person is Cissy Rock, who has engineered a succession of successful and creative lesbian events in West Auckland. Any of Cissy's events and happenings are a treat for those who live west of Waterview, and definitely worth the drive for those who don't. Campbell Smith - for understanding how corrosive hatred is When GayNZ.com pointed out that Big Day Out-invited guest reggae singer Beenie Man was an anti-gay hatemonger of global proportions, music aficionados around us said: "Call Campbell - he'll sort it out". Backgrounder: many of the Big Day Out acts are block-booked from Australia to appear in the Aussie main centres plus Auckland. Promoter Smith adds local content and promotes the Auckland event. Though a seasoned music promoter, his expertise is not reggae. Smith's enquries of the Australian principals of the BDO generated a mealy-mouthed 'We are aware of his controversial past but what's past is past' kind of response from Ockerland. Smith probed deeper, listened to the gay community's point of view, possibly considered what having a "Come to Jamaica and kill the gays" singer on stage would mean to the Big Day Out, and in less than a week Beenie Man was no longer welcome in Auckland or any of Australia's Big Day Outs. Thanks for listening and for understanding, Campbell! GayNZ.com - 31st December 2009