Dan Savage and Dominic Holden Both Make The Advocate’s List of 50 Most Influential LGBTs in Media

Seattle native/former Stranger writer/current BuzzFeed reporter DOMINIC HOLDEN made The Advocate’s list of 50 influential LGBTs in media

Two Seattle LGBT media types made The Advocate’s list of  “50 Most Influential LGBTs in Media”. The Advocate polled other LGBTQ journalists and asked them who they thought were the most influential out gay journalists, reporters and pundits who work for mainstream outlets…in other words, queer writers working for queer outlets were not included for whatever reason. (Though their definition of ‘mainstream’ seems to be vague; Perez Hilton made this list for his own website as did Jared Yew for his site “Just Jared” both of which are…pretty damn gay).

Dan Savage from Seattle’s weekly for now/soon to be bi-weekly alternative paper/website The Stranger snagged the 12th spot on the list ; (not surprisingly…we’re surprised he’s not higher) and a former writer at that same outlet and Seattle native Dominic Holden who now writes/reports for the web outlet BuzzFeed surprisingly grabbed the 17th position ahead of FiveThirtyEight founder Nate Silver (18), the NY Times’ columnist Frank Bruni (19), conservative pundit Andrew Sullivan (22), MSNBC anchor Thomas Roberts (41) and hunky/adorable ABC News reporter Gio Benitez (50).

Holden was a writer/reporter at The Stranger for many years who earned street cred for reporting on a variety of topics including pot legalization, LGBTQ rights, police brutality and the usual Seattle specific hot issues like bike lanes, density and Capitol Hill Block Party line-ups. He left the weekly alt rag just as it entered its weird interim period between its “heyday” and its current state of transforming itself into something vaguely resembling a bi-weekly Penny Saver written by 24 year olds.

Subsequently, Dom snagged his great gig with BuzzFeed and now works out of NYC and DC.

YAY FOR DOM!!!

As for the rest of the line-up…Rachel Maddow and Anderson Cooper snagged the top 2 spots (obviously) but the rest of the list….up for discussion, folks!

We like Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts but…is she really very influential. She’s….nice.

Harvey Levin, from TMZ….really?

And, where’s Ellen DeGeneres? Isn’t she considered “media”? Why not?

Here’s the Top 20…check out the entire list HERE.

1. Rachel Maddow – Host, MSNBC’s The Rachel Maddow Show
2. Anderson Cooper – Host, CNN’s Anderson Cooper 360
3. Lydia Polgreen – Editor in Chief, Huffington Post
4. Roxanne Gay – Contributing Op-ed Writer, The New York Times
5. Charles Blow – Columnist, The New York Times
6. Robin Roberts – Host, ABC’s Good Morning America
7. Shepard Smith – Anchor, FOX News
8. Harvey Levin – Founder/Host, TMZ
9. Don Lemon – Anchor, CNN
10. Janet Mock – Contributing Editor, Marie Claire
11. Saeed Jones – Executive Editor of Culture, Buzzfeed
12. Dan Savage – Editorial Director, The Stranger
13. Phillip Picardi – Digital Editorial Director, Teen Vogue & Allure
14. Chris Geidner – Legal Editor, BuzzFeed
15. Ari Shapiro – Host, NPR’s All Things Considered
16. Ira Madison III – Writer, The Daily Beast
17. Dominic Holden – Civil Rights and Department of Justice Reporter, BuzzFeed
18. Nate Silver – Editor in Chief, ESPN’S FiveThirtyEight
19. Frank Bruni – Columnist, The New York Times
20. Masha Gessen – Freelance Journalist