It’s been quite a year for the Gavster. Elected by a slim majority, Gavin let a few gay people get married and the next thing you know, he’s blown up across the country. He’s become the biggest thing from these parts since the Pets.com sock puppet. Since then he’s been profiled in such illustrious magazines as the New Yorker and Esquire, posed for that little photo we like to describe as “So Best”, had his wife make the New York Post’s Page 6 for leaking details of their sex life, and was blamed for John Kerry’s defeat (that whole moral values/anti-gay marriage reading of the election has been totally debunked, by the way). With it being the end of the year and there being all sorts of End of the Year award type-thingies going on, our very own Mayor has now found himself racking some of them up. In this week’s big “Person of the Year” issue of Time Magazine, won by somebody with whom we’d rather not mention, Newsom was named as “Somebody Who Matters.” Isn’t that nice? Not to be outdone, Newsweek crows about the fact that they totally called Newsom as an up-and-comer in 2003 (San Francisco’s very own Craig Newmark is honored as such for 2004, which falls into the category of “where you’ve been?”).

Finally, in other Year End Awards news, Planet Out named Gavin as Person of the Year for, well, obvious reasons. In doing so, he beat out Theresa Heinz-Kerry and Melissa Etheridge.

And to think, Chris Daly thinks he's the grinch.

Photo courtesy of Time Magazine