When the Rachel Maddow Show debuted on MSNBC back in September 2008, not many people knew her now-famous story. They were not aware that this impish, handsome figure with a sideways grin, a scholar's brain, and a lawyer's logic was a Rhodes scholar, former activist, and open lesbian.

Cable news isn't the most female-friendly place, much less the most queer-friendly: Its biggest female star to date has been Ann Coulter, who trades openly on her short skirts and Breck-Girl hair and throws the word "faggot" around like confetti

Yet, the minute we met Maddow, the country went gaga for her. Actually, it's more like the country went gay for her.

The "gay for Rachel" meme appears to transcend gender and sexuality. Women, men, straight and not straight: they're all gay for her. In a year in which we have decided to become postracial and postgender, Maddow may embody a media in which adoring fandom is postgay.

Maddow lives with her partner of 10 years