This week, PGN is presents its inaugural compilation of all things fine in gay Philadelphia. It’s a joint effort: nominations by you dear readers, tiebreaking votes by PGN staff.
While this might be the first time that PGN is doing a “best of” in name, this isn’t the first time the community and the paper have honored our favorites.
Years ago, PGN held the Lambda Awards, garnering votes from readers. In 2006, PGN started the Pink Penny Awards, in which the editorial staff chose its favorites from the slew of worthy contenders. After five years, frankly, we were bored. We needed something fresh to get us excited about going out in our town again.
Pink Penny took a lot out of us. We had to figure out the categories, then have staff submit their picks. Next we compiled submissions and selected the winners. Occasionally, we had to take field trips to sample the wares and make sure we made the right call (Naked Chocolate, where are you?). We often had to argue the finer points of this bar over that one, this restaurant over that one. Then we had to send our photographer to capture our faves and set our crack entertainment writer loose on the winners. It damn near kills them every year. As editor, I tried to make sure we were as fair and balanced in our opinions as we could be. Then, we had to print certificates and distribute them to the winners. Needless to say, at least once or twice, something fell through the cracks.
Thus, the Best of Gay Philadelphia was born. This time, we are sharing the workload.
For this, we established the categories, then figured out how to get you, dear reader, to nominate your favorites online and on paper. (Thank you!)
Next, we compiled the submissions and pulled the top five nominees. We printed these last week, so that readers would know what had made the first cut.
After this, PGN staff sat down and reviewed the nominees. Some categories were easy calls, in which there was a clear winner. Others were close, and we had to cast our own votes.
Then we sent our crack photographer and entertainment writer to work.
What you have before you took months to plan and only a little blood, sweat, heartache and tears. For all the snark and fun that is a part of this, we also want to sincerely acknowledge the people, places and things that comprise our community and make it great. We truly wish that we had more time and space to appreciate and recognize what so many of you do, be it activist, entertainer, entrepreneur or all-around good person. You make Philadelphia the best.
Congratulations, Best of Gay Philadelphia.