This year's competition was among our finest. Our judges faced a tremendous challenge in selecting the best of the best among a growing number of entries. We are especially proud of all honorees and the other excellent candidates.

All of our honorees, not only blazed historic trails for all journalists, they gave us powerful legacies to inspire the next generations of successful, openly gay journalists.

This week, our members will come to Chicago from across the nation for the single most important gathering we hold each year. Celebrating our 15 years of leadership, NLGJA is uniquely qualified to bring skills and substance to the expert coverage of critical gay issues.

I invite competition. I enjoy a good competitive encounter. I enjoy the challenge and watching it unfold. I dig deeper and I challenge our people to dig deeper. I pay attention to when my people need support and coaching. I was always competitive. I'm not competitive about sports, but I'm competitive intellectually. My competition is me, I always try to be better.

My personal challenge is to try to obtain a fixed competition for the national teams. I want the Pumas to compete with the best.

The competition here in Gwinnett is so tough. Every team we come up against is a challenge.