Newsmakers of the Year

Lady Gaga

If "equality is the prime rib of America,” then we know who we’d hire to be our butcher. The 24-year-old subversive siren has never been reticent to exalt all things gay, but it wasn’t until this year that Lady Gaga truly put her influence (and a Twitter following that dwarfs President Obama’s) to work. She presided over rallies, called senators, was chaperoned by gay service members to the MTV Video Music Awards, and struck up a Tweetship of sorts with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who thanked her directly after the successful vote.