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.

Melanie Nathan
Her peers call her “a force of nature.” Melanie Nathan, a South Africa-born attorney, used her law school experience to assist African workers who were victims of apartheid in the 1980s. After immigrating to the U.S., she founded Private Courts, Inc., a mediation and human rights advocacy firm in Marin County, California. She is also a prolific blogger and journalist who uses her writing “as a platform for my advocacy work…to get results such as helping LGBT asylum seekers.” It’s taken her to some controversial places: regular communication with the author of Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, an investigation of “corrective rape” of lesbians in South Africa, which led to a Parliamentary Task team. In addition to her blog, O-Blog-Dee-O-Blog-Da, she contributes to The Advocate, LGBTQ Nation and others. Nathan is co-producer of GAY U.S.A. the Movie, a documentary debunking the myths that impact gay rights. “No American, least of all our own community, should sit back and allow prejudice and discrimination to continue. This is the final frontier of the civil rights movement in America,” Nathan argues. “Each and every one of us has a duty to tell our stories, and not one ear should be spared.”