Stephen Fry has been named the Twitter user with the most influence when it comes to LGBT life, in PinkNews.co.uk’s 2011 list.

He told PinkNews.co.uk: “It’s a very remarkable honour to top such a list. Thank you.

“Even if 90% of LGBT tweets are used for gossip, flirting and being quite splendidly silly there’s still at least 10% where twitter connects, affirms and vindicates, where it stands up for victims and stands up to bullies and bigots.

“Twitter can help lonely people feel part of a world where love and respect take the place of shame and ignorance.

“And the glory is, you only have to see one tweet from a cruel, bullying imbecile and you can block them out of your twitter life for ever.”

Fry led the rankings of the most influential LGBT Tweeters this year, beating competition from Lady Gaga, Ellen Degeneres and Perez Hilton. Read the full top 50 here.

In early December, PinkNews.co.uk sought nominations for the users LGBT readers listened to the most. These nominations were then run through the PeerIndex social media ranking system to draw up a list of the top 50 LGBT Tweeters.

PeerIndex measures how authoritative and interesting other people think a Twitter user is, as well as what topics and categories drive that interest, rather than focusing only on the number of followers each user has.