Here are your homo heroes!

Over the past few weeks the Lesbian & Gay Foundation (LGF) have been asking vistors to LGF online to nominate their homo heroes.

Those people in the public eye - lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or heterosexual - who have made people sit up and take notice of LGB&T issues.

This year the theme at Manchester Pride is heroes, and the top 20 homo heroes voted for by LGF online visitors will proudly be held aloft as part of the LGF's Manchester Pride parade entry on Saturday August 29.

We have had hundreds of nominations and now that the votes have been counted, we can exclusively reveal the top 20 homo heroes as voted for by the LGB&T community:

1. Ellen DeGeneres
2. Harvey Milk
3. Tony Blair
4. Quentin Crisp
5. Oscar Wilde
6. Russell T Davies
7. John Barrowman
8. Lindsay Lohan
9. Sir Ian McKellen
10. Stephen Fry
11. Freddie Mercury
12. Dusty Springfield
13. Beth Ditto
14. Peter Tatchell
15. Jimmy Sommerville
16. Justin Fashanu
17. Alan Turing
18. Edward Carpenter
19. Portia De Rossi
20. Will Young

The final results have thrown up some interesting results...

• While Ellen DeGeneres garnered the most votes, there are only 5 women in the top 20
• Former Labour Prime Minister Tony Blair received double the votes of gay rights activist Peter Tatchell
• Lindsay Lohan, Will Young and Portia De Rossi were catapulted in to the top 20 on the last day of voting
• Homo hero Peter Tatchell will be at Manchester Pride on Saturday 29 August leading the pride parade
• Votes for Ellen and Portia mean that there's a married couple in the top 20.
  

Now the homo heroes campaign moves on to its second stage...

Over Manchester Pride's Big Weekend and on lgf.org.uk, we will be asking people to nominate their personal homo heroes...those individuals who have inspired them and made a real difference in their lives.

This might still be someone in the public eye, or someone closer, maybe a partner, husband, wife, mum, dad, brother, sister, or friend. You can tell us all about your personal heroes at the LGF stall at the Lifestyle Expo over Manchester Pride and give that special someone their own homo hero award.

Be a homo hero and email your personal homo hero votes in to Joanne.Dunning@lgf.org.uk or post your nomination in the comment box below.

Here are the homo heroes who received nominations but didn't quite make the top 20:

Alexander the Great, Pedro Almodovar, Andy Bell, Christopher Biggins, David Bowie, Carrie Brownstein, Judith Butler, Michael Cashman, Alan Carr, Michael Causer, Maureen Colquhoun, Alan Cumming, Dan Choi, David & Jonathon, Portia De Rossi, Donna Dresch, Carol Ann Duffy, Dr Marie Equi, U A Fanthorpe, Sharon Gless, Rob Halford, Cath Hall, Radclyffe Hall, Tom Hanks, Harriet Harman, Jonathan Harvey, Dana International, Derek Jarman, Elton John, Holly Johnson, Grace Jones, Jackie Kay, Larry Kramer, Lady Gaga, Annie Lennox, Jacob Lotchkey, Liza Minnelli, Martina Navratilova, Senator David Norris, Georgia O'Keeffe, Joe Orton, Linda Perry, Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie, Mary Portas, Eleanor Roosevelt, Sylvia Rae Rivera, Tom Robinson, Sue Sanders, JD Samson, Pete Shelley, Jeffree Star, Sylvia Townsend Warner, Rufus Wainwright, John Waters, Sarah Waters, Jeanette Winterson, Venus Williams, Sir John Wolfenden, Virginia Woolf and Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative government for inadvertently mobilising the gay community in the face of Section 28.

Remember you can post your personal homo hero nominations in the comment box below.