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.

Jo Deutsch
As the Federal Director for Freedom to Marry, Jo Deutsch supervises the campaign’s effort to overturn the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and end marriage discrimination. Under her leadership, the organization has put together a bipartisan team to fight for marriage equality at the federal level. Before joining Freedom to Marry, Deutsch was a 26-year veteran of the labor movement, working extensively for the rights of workers, including LGBT workers and their families. Uniting her personal life as an out lesbian with her activist career, Deutsch says “there is nothing more rewarding than being able to now combine these efforts and spend both my professional and personal time working for the freedom to marry.“ A Florida native, she currently lives in Maryland with her partner of 29 years and their three children. “I will continue to fight until DOMA is repealed and every LGBT couple can legally marry,“ she says, “until the love of my life and I can walk down the aisle and be given away by our kids in the presence of our family and friends.”

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