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.

Sarah Blazucki
“Working at an LGBT publication, I can focus on issues that directly impact me and my community,” says Sarah Blazucki, editor of Philadelphia Gay News, the oldest LGBT newsweekly in the country. “Inequality incenses me, and I hope that my work in journalism gives voice and attention to those who might not get it otherwise.” Under Blazucki’s leadership, the PGN staff has won more than 30 awards for the paper’s pioneering content, but Blazucki doesn’t rest on her laurels. As a board member of the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association, she advocates inclusive newsrooms and accurate reporting of LGBT issues; she’s also currently creating programming for UNITY Journalists Convention, a quadrennial conference of minority journalist organizations. Blazucki isn’t afraid of the so-called end of print—she’s embraced the possibilities of mobile technology by developing a website (lgbtrights.me) for users to find LGBT rights by address or GPS locator. All in a day’s work for the insatiably curious newshound. “I want to know how things work, be it government, society or the streets. I want to highlight when things don’t work and expose injustices — and inspire people to act,” she says. “In all of this, I want an interesting story.”

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