Who will be the TIME Person of the Year for 2019? Will it be climate change activist Greta Thunberg? The Whistleblower? Nancy Pelosi? The choice is yours to make.
On Monday, the magazine unveiled its short list of finalists on NBC’s “Today,” which included more than a few of President Trump’s friends and foes — including Greta Thunberg, soccer star Megan Rapinoe, and the infamous whistleblower who helped prompt the ongoing House impeachment proceedings.
“The teen activist has become a prominent face in the fight to save the environment in the face of climate change,” the outlet said of Thunberg. “The 16-year-old from Sweden was the catalyst in a host of student-led strikes involving more than a million students across the world in the last two years when she began spending her school days protesting outside the Swedish parliament.”
When speaking of “The Whistleblower,” “Today” described the mysterious fellow as an “anonymous CIA officer shook up the U.S. government by triggering the impeachment inquiry into President Donald Trump.”
If the whistleblower were selected, it would be the second time since 2002 that the magazine selected whistleblowers for the top slot.
“A group of whistleblowers were previously selected for the honor by TIME in 2002 for bringing to light the massive accounting scandals at Enron and Worldcom as well as the FBI’s mishandling of information from the 9/11 attacks,” reported the outlet.
Also included on the list is none other than LGBT icon soccer player Megan Rapinoe, who became the most notoriously left-wing athlete since Colin Kaepernick after helping lead the U.S. to victory in the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
“Rapinoe also sparred with President Donald Trump during the World Cup run after saying she would never visit the White House if the team won the tournament,” the outlet said of Rapinoe. “She also has been an outspoken advocate for LGBTQ rights since publicly coming out as gay in 2012 and has joined with her teammates on the U.S. women’s national team to fight to receive equal pay with the U.S. men’s national team.”
Of those listed by TIME, the most unifying pick that all Americans would perhaps rally behind is the Hong Kong protesters:
Waves of demonstrations have swept across the special administrative region of China in response to proposed amendments to Hong Kong’s extradition law. The change would allow the Hong Kong government to extradite people to mainland China, where human rights groups have said citizens are often arbitrarily imprisoned for speaking out against the government. Critics of the bill have viewed it as the Chinese government in Beijing trying to exert more control over Hong Kong.
The protests began in earnest in June, when more than a million people protested against the bill in front of Hong Kong’s legislature, with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas into the crowd. The bill has been indefinitely suspended, but pro-democracy protests have continued for months, including a transportation strike and demonstrators taking over the Hong Kong airport. They also have demanded that the nearly 5,000 protesters who have been arrested be released as well as universal suffrage for Hong Kong citizens.
Should TIME select the Hong Kong protesters, it would be a bold move and signify the magazine’s willingness to buck the current cultural trend of catering to the Chinese government.
Rudy Giuliani, President Trump, President Xi Jinping, and Mark Zuckerberg were also among the finalists.