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.

Dr. Eliza Byard
In a time when anti-gay bullying is getting nonstop media coverage, we’re lucky to have Dr. Eliza Byard at the forefront of advocating safer schools for all students. Dr. Byard is the Executive Director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN), a world-renowned leader in education, youth development and the protection of civil rights. Under her leadership, GLSEN is fighting to end bias-based bullying, violence and discrimination in schools. In 2008, Dr. Byard was responsible for developing GLSEN’s Think B4 You Speak, the first-ever Ad Council campaign on LGBT issues. For more than a decade, she’s guided the development of GLSEN’s public education, advocacy efforts and in-school programs like No Name-Calling Week. In addition, she has crafted and implemented legislative strategies that have won bipartisan support at all levels of government. Her efforts have helped win widespread recognition of the importance of LGBT issues to America’s commitment to educational opportunity. Before GLSEN, Dr. Byard was the executive producer of the groundbreaking documentary Out of the Past, which focuses on 400 years of LGBT people and events in history. She graduated from high school and came out in the mid-1980s, at the height of HIV/AIDS hysteria and anti-gay backlash. That’s when she heard the call to arms. “The LGBT community was under siege,” she explains. “Seeing the community coming together in the great and desperate work of change, I knew I needed to contribute to it.”

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