100 Women We Love, Queer Women We Love, Wonder Women

100 Women We Love 2012

June 15, 2012
“Knowing that my election showed Charlotteans and the world that we are not bound by discrimination wakes me every morning with pride,” proclaims LaWana Mayfield, the City Council representative for District 3 in Charlotte, NC, and the city’s first openly gay elected official. Last November, she trounced her Republican opponent in the council election with 78 percent of the vote, replacing an eight-year incumbent. Now, continuously building on her 15 years of activism, her other leadership posts include the Charlotte Mecklenburg Community Relations Committee, Mecklenburg County Development Corp. Board, Smart Start Board and the Charlotte Lesbian and Gay Fund Board of Advisors. Prior to the election, Mayfield took an active role in LGBT activism as the Human Rights Campaign’s Diversity Co-Chair. “I believe that my role, along with growing the City of Charlotte, is to open the door for LGBTQ dialogue and to create pathways to service. I have this amazing opportunity to help direct the growth of the City of Charlotte through my vote,” Mayfield says. “I am right where I am supposed to be, and I love my job!”

Drum roll, please! We’re excited to present this year’s 100 Women We Love—our most diverse group of out entertainers, artists, athletes, activists, business principals and elected officials yet. Each of these women is a superstar in her own right. Their achievements and contributions shape our lives —and elevate us in the eyes of the world . They’re working to raise LGBT awareness, increase our visibility and quicken our progress toward a just society.

We are extremely proud to present the class of 2012. There are no rankings or numbers. They are all leaders.

Jessica Halem
Sun in Gemini. Moon in Sagittarius. Mind in gutter. Jessica Halem is what happens when you mix a hippie Midwest upbringing with a Sarah Lawrence education. The nationally touring comic brings brains and bawdiness to her racy, politically charged stage act and the result is little like a horny Gloria Steinem on nitrous oxide. “Humor is a powerful weapon for social justice,” says the former globetrotting executive assistant to feminist icon Bella Abzug and former Executive Director of the Lesbian Community Cancer Project. “No one knows what to expect from me,” she adds. “People hear lesbian feminist and are surprised when I start talking about glory holes. But that’s why I’m here, to complicate the way queer people are seen.” Jessica’s one-woman show Bad Feminist was such a huge hit at last year’s HOT! Festival that she landed her own monthly show at Dixon Place. She returns to the festival this year with See Something, Gay Something.

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