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

100 Women We Love 2012

June 15, 2012 Destiny Dejesus

“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.

Ariel Schrag
Ariel Schrag is way cooler than you. A cartoonist, television writer, screenwriter and all-around badass, Schrag pumped out four autobiographical graphic novels while she was still a teenager. One of those novels, Potential–a coming-of-age story that documents her first serious lesbian relationship–is being developed into a feature film by superproducer Christine Vachon’s Killer Films; Schrag wrote the screenplay adaptation. She’s seamlessly integrated her relatable life story into the online comic Ariel and Kevin Invade Everything (with comedian/writer Kevin Seccia); live performances of her comics using narration, slide projections and a musical soundtrack (she toured North America with Sister Spit in 2009); original art that has appeared in major magazines, galleries and museums; and courses she taught at leading universities (she graduated from Columbia in 2003). Her extraordinary oeuvre is the subject of the award-winning doc Confession: A Film About Ariel Schrag by director/producer Sharon Barnes. We asked her how being an out lesbian affected her career. “Oh, just a different set of sex acts performed to get to the top,” she quips. One day it will be Ariel Schrag’s universe, and we will happily live in it.