Ambush Gay Appreciation Awards (New Orleans): How Voting Works & How to Win

What are the Ambush Gay Appreciation Awards and who runs them?

The Gay Appreciation Awards, shortened almost everywhere to GAA, are a favorites ballot run by Ambush Magazine, the New Orleans publication that bills itself "The Official Gay Magazine of the Gulf South™." The program belongs to the best-of family: instead of judging entries or electing candidates, it asks readers to name the people, spots and businesses they rate highest in the community. Ambush Publishing LLC appears as the publisher in the site footer, and Reed Wendorf is credited both with building the website and with writing the 2023 nominee announcement, so the editorial operation behind the ballot is small, named and easy to identify.

The awards sit inside a broader publication rather than a standalone campaign site. Alongside its contest coverage, the magazine's front page carries Arts & Culture, Health News, general news announcements, obituaries, The Official Dish, opinion pieces, horoscopes and a podcast, which is why the GAA reads as one strand of a working editorial calendar rather than a pop-up poll.

Because a public vote settles everything, the result measures organized community turnout at least as much as quiet popularity. A nominee with a loyal venue, a busy social circle and a well-timed reminder effort can outrun a better-known name that nobody thought to push, and that trait shapes every piece of advice further down this page.

Which GAA cycles have run, and what dates are actually printed?

Repetition is designed into the program. Ballot activity shows up in 2019, 2023, 2025 and 2026, which marks the GAA as a returning event rather than a lone experiment. Between cycles the tag goes quiet, then revives whenever the next announcement lands.

The 2019 cycle carries the fullest printed description: the magazine announced that voting was open across 38 awards, and the whole push sat inside July. The 2023 cycle looked different in shape, because on August 4, 2023 Reed Wendorf reported the Top Five Nominees for that year's awards, so a finalist layer sat between the ballot opening and the final count. Once voting wraps, results follow the magazine's own printed formula: "Ambush Magazine is pleased to announce the winners in each category of the Gay Appreciation Awards (GAA)."

Planning around this ballot means accepting its blanks. Later cycles have printed no day-level opening or closing dates in their posts, and the 2025 and 2026 appearances confirm continuity without carrying dated detail. The posts likewise stop short of a category roster, a per-supporter ceiling and eligibility terms; confirm on the live ballot each cycle.

How does a supporter actually vote in the Gay Appreciation Awards?

Voting in the Gay Appreciation Awards runs through the magazine's own web presence rather than any outside polling vendor. During an active cycle, the GAA tag page on ambushmag.com carries the announcement post, and that post hands readers the link to the live ballot. From there the job is what the format implies: read the categories on offer, mark the favorite you want backed in each, and get everything in before the cutoff the announcement sets.

Practical notes worth knowing before you begin. The announcement posts walk readers straight to the ballot link, with no mention of an app install along the way, and the ballot behaves like any other page on the site, so a phone browser copes with it as comfortably as a desktop tab.

Timing is the part supporters most often fumble. Cutoffs are set per cycle inside the announcement itself, so build the habit of checking the posted date before scheduling any reminder burst around it.

One more expectation to set: the ballot's fine grain, from how categories are grouped to whether write-ins exist, changes nothing about the basic act of marking a favorite and submitting. Anyone comfortable with an online survey can finish within minutes.

Where does the GAA sit among Louisiana's other community ballots?

Louisiana sustains a dense bench of public favorites ballots, and the GAA occupies a distinctive lane within it. Most of the pack chases a general readership: Best of New Orleans competes in the same metro with a citywide slate, while Best of Baton Rouge, Bayou's Best in Houma, Best of SWLA and the Alexandria Community's Choice Awards carry the same idea to other corners of the state. The statewide 2025 Family Favorites rounds out the set.

The GAA differs in emphasis rather than machinery. Its sponsor speaks to the Gulf South's LGBTQ readership as a core identity beat, so the categories, the nominees and the campaigning all cluster around businesses, venues and figures that matter to that community. A reader choosing between ballots is really choosing an audience: the general-market polls above spread across a whole city's tastes, while this one concentrates support inside a defined community and its allies.

What strengthens a nominee's standing in the GAA vote?

Since the outcome is a raw count of public clicks, effective campaigns treat the ballot as a turnout problem. The moves that matter: distribute the direct ballot link rather than a homepage, tell people exactly which category to mark, and schedule reminders so they land before the posted cutoff instead of after. Venues, friend groups and neighborhood circles that owe a nominee goodwill convert far better than strangers, because the ask arrives with a relationship attached.

The calendar adds its own wrinkle. Because a close like the 2019 midnight-on-July-9 finish is announced inside that year's post rather than on a fixed calendar slot, every reminder plan should start by reading the current announcement, not last year's. Campaigns that reuse an old date risk reminding supporters after the ballot has already shut.

Ambush publishes no playbook for outside pushes, so creativity within the announcement's own terms is the whole game. For a deeper method list that suits community awards like this, the online votes guide walks through outreach tactics step by step.