Let's face it: not many of our favorite lesbian actors, musicians, comics and characters enjoy the kind of mainstream affection they do with AfterEllen.com readers. In fact, if your gaydar is in the shop, one quick queer test is to drop a name like Tegan and Sara. Or maybe mention Piper Perabo. If someone knows her as Rachel from Imagine Me & You, and not "that girl from Coyote Ugly," you've probably met yourself a genuine lez.

Back in 2008, we noticed a trend: lesbian and bisexual characters were disappearing onscreen, but lesbian and bisexual actors were gaining plenty of notoriety. We were proved right — once again — when Entertainment Weekly released its "2009 Best & Worst" issue, which gave plenty of mainstream love to some of our favorite gays.

Two queer ladies snagged Entertainer of the Year titles. Lady Gaga came it at number three, while Jane Lynch took spot number 12.

Amazingly, the biggest points [Lady Gaga] has made so far is that her songs — from the p-p-persistence of "Poker Face" to the Grand Guignol choruses of "Bad Romance" — are some of the purest pleasures ever aurally dispensed. And while it's impossible to to imagine he her keeping up his pace for another year (let alone a whole career), she reassures us she's not striving for reinvention on a daily basis. "I really am all the things that you see. So it will be one continuous thought until I'm laying in a coffin, surrounded by all of my props."

Glee's Sue Sylvester would tell Jane Lynch to suck it up and not be so grateful for her scene-stealing role in the Fox hit. But the 49-year-old actress doesn't have Sue's stone-cold demeanor (or her colors-of-the-rainbow tracksuit collection). "It's been a slow reckoning that this is pretty awesome," says Lynch of her growing fame. "But it also means you can't make a foll of yourself in public. No more streaking. Basically now I have to behave myself."

(And just to add a little "G" perspective to the "LGBT", Adam Lambert pulled the eighth spot for Entertainer of the Year, and ABC's super gay Modern Family was number nine.)

In more specific categories, Gossip scored the sixth best song of the year with "Heavy Cross."

There's one more lesbian highlight in EW's Best and Worst, but I'm reluctant to give it to you. [Deep breath] In "The Shaw Report," Jessica Shaw examines what's in, what's five minutes ago, and what's absolutely out. The last item on her list this year just might break your heart:

Oh, Shane. You'll always be in with us.

Who were your favorite out performers this year?