Equality NC Foundation Announces its 2011 Equality Champions

To be a part of the Equality fanfare, REGISTER NOW for the 2011 Equality NC Foundation Conference & Gala. Early bird registration for this year's event--focused on education and advocacy around the anti-LGBT amendment--ends next Friday, October 21.

So, without further ado...this year's regional Equality Champions are:

Matt Comer, Equality Champion for the Charlotte Region
Matt Comer has provided superb coverage of the anti-LGBT amendment for QNotes, often working hand in hand with Pam Spaulding of Pam's House Blend to elevate coverage of LGBT news in North Carolina to an art form. We're so honored to have a reporter like Matt Comer in our midst, and to have someone so young speak so eloquently for his peers. We know he'll do big things but always stay true to the LGBT movement in his beloved home state.

A native of Winston-Salem, Matt Comer has served as editor of QNotes since October 2007. Established in 1986, QNotes is the premier arts, entertainment, and news publication serving the Carolinas’ LGBT communities. Prior to moving to Charlotte, Comer worked and volunteered with a variety of local, state, and national LGBT organizations. He was a participant in the 2007 Soulforce Equality Ride, which visited 24 Christian colleges and universities across the country that openly discriminate against LGBT students and faculty. Comer’s essay on his upbringing in a conservative Baptist home and church was first published in 2008 and republished this fall in Mitchell Gold's and Mindy Drucker's anthology, Youth in Crisis: 40 Stories on Why Religion-Based Bigotry Against Gay People Must End Now. Comer attended the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and is currently enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he is studying American history and politics.

Lenwood S. "Bo" Dean, Equality Champion for the Eastern Region
For us, Bo has alway been our go-to person in Wilmington. When we call, he drops everything to help us. When we make a mistake, he makes sure we learn from it. And when we triumph, he sends his love all the way across the state so we can feel it even before he expresses it. His passion and dedication make him one of our friends for life and we couldn't imagine getting anything done in the East without him.

Bo is a native North Carolinian through and through, born in Fuquay-Varina and raised in Chapel Hill. He moved to Wilmington with his husband, Dr. Michael Freeze, in 1999 and became actively involved in the LGBTQIA and greater Wilmington communities. Bo is the program manger for the Honors Scholars Program at UNC Wilmington. To name just a few of his numerous community activities, he is also the founder of OutWilmington.com, a founder of Project B-GLAD (now Safe Zone) at UNC Wilmington, an advisor to UNCW Pride, a former member and chair of the Chancellor’s Human Relations Advisory Committee and Mutli-Cultural Task Force at UNC Wilmington, a former board member and long-time supporter of Equality North Carolina, a former vice chair of the New Hanover Democratic Party, and a second-term member of the board of commissioners for the Wilmington Housing Authority. Bo and Michael were legally married in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, in 2009 and have been together with their two cats and way too much cobalt crystal for fifteen years, and would like to be legally married in North Carolina!

Maxine Eichner and Holning Lau, Equality Champions for the Triangle Region
Maxine Eichner and Holning Lau conducted critically important research on the harms of the anti-LGBT amendment this year, making it possible for Equality North Carolina to publish The Truth About the Anti-LGBT Marriage Amendment. Their powerful data and potential testimony were so threatening to the proponents of the amendment in the North Carolina House that they blocked testimony about it, thereby censoring public opinion. We salute Holning and Maxine not only for their integrity and courage, but for their willingness to do whatever it took to help LGBT North Carolinians in their hour of need.

Maxine Eichner is the Reef C. Ivey II Professor of Law at UNC School of Law in Chapel Hill. Before joining UNC’s faculty in 2003, she practiced civil rights, women's rights, and employment law for several years at the law firm of Patterson, Harkavy, and Lawrence in Raleigh. She then entered graduate school in the political science department at UNC, eventually earning a PhD in political theory while on the law school's faculty. She specializes in family law and sex equality issues. When she is not analyzing the effects of the proposed anti-LGBT amendment, she writes about the role that government should play when it comes to families and the dependency issues that families face. Her book on this issue, The Supportive State: Families, Government, and America's Political Ideals, was published last year by Oxford University Press.

Holning Lau is an associate professor of law at UNC School of Law in Chapel Hill, where he teaches family law and law and sexuality. At UNC, he has also worked with students on a variety of pro bono projects related to LGBT rights both near and far. For example, he worked with students to prepare a brief for Boseman v. Jarrell, the North Carolina Supreme Court case concerning second-parent adoptions. He also supervised pro bono research for the Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Project at the International Commission of Jurists, a human rights organization based in Switzerland. For work such as this, Professor Lau was named the 2011 Professor of the Year by the Law School’s Pro Bono Program.

Prior to joining the UNC faculty, Professor Lau taught at Hofstra Law School, where he co-directed Hofstra’s LGBT Rights Fellowship Program. Before that, he worked at the Williams Institute, a think tank that focuses on matters concerning sexual orientation and gender identity. Professor Lau received his JD from the University of Chicago, where he was named a Stonewall Scholar for excellence in his work related to sexual orientation rights, and was awarded the Ignacio Martín-Baró Award for his writing on human rights.

Bob Page, Equality Champion for the Triad Region
Bob Page is quite simply the person who has inspired us to grow and become a force to be reckoned with. His support for LGBT work in North Carolina and other places has made a critical difference, as have the achievements that have grown out of that support. A visionary for the LGBT movement, a generous supporter of worthy charities, a brilliant business leader, a family man--Bob Page is our favorite person of this or any year and the reason we're naming ALL our Equality Champion Awards in his name forever and ever. Thank you, Bob--you are the glue that has made the LGBT and allied community in North Carolina a true family.

Replacements, Ltd., Chairman and CEO Bob Page grew up on a small tobacco farm in rural North Carolina before graduating from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1968 with a BS in Accounting. He served two years in the US Army prior to starting his accounting career in 1970. During the late 70’s, Page had grown to hate his job as a state auditor and lived for his weekend hobby of going to flea markets. Longing to make a living doing what he loved, in 1981 he launched Replacements, Ltd., moving his business from the attic of his home. The business has grown into the world’s largest retailer of old and new china, crystal, silver, and collectibles, with sales exceeding $80 million for the 2010 fiscal year. The company’s diverse workforce is comprised of 450 employees. Page lives a modest lifestyle in Greensboro with his partner of 22 years, Dale Frederiksen, and their very active twelve-year-old twin sons (Owen and Ryan), who were adopted from Vietnam in 2000. For many years, he has supported a wide variety of charities and has been a tireless supporter and advocate for the rights of the LGBT community.

Reverend Dr. T. Anthony Spearman, Equality Champion for the Western Region
In May, when Representative Marcus Brandon hosted a press conference featuring a room full of faith leaders opposed to the anti-LGBT amendment, Reverend Dr. T. Anthony Spearman spoke so eloquently that video of him immediately went viral. Among other things, he said, “This extreme legislation will only cause needless pain and suffering. It sends a message to major employers that North Carolina does not welcome a diverse workplace. It tells young people who are gay they’re second class citizens, unworthy of basic dignity and equal treatment. It is not fair and it is certainly not just.” Since that press conference, Reverend Spearman has become only more eloquent on behalf of LGBT North Carolinians, seeing the anti-LGBT amendment for what it is pure and simple, nothing but pure discrimination. Thank you, Reverend Spearman, for your continuing words of inspiration.

Reverend Dr. T. Anthony Spearman is married to Janice Brunson Spearman and they have three children and five grandchildren. Since June 2005, he has been serving the Clinton Tabernacle AME Zion Church in Hickory. In just a few short years, he has organized a major building campaign for the church and founded Clinton's Corner of Catawba, a nonprofit organization to assist the church in carrying out its mission in the community. Reverend Spearman has pounded the pavement every year but one at the Historic Thousands on Jones Street rally since its inception in 2007, and was jailed earlier this year for protesting the state budget. Dr. Spearman is the immediate past president of the Hickory branch of NAACP North Carolina and the religious affairs chairman for NAACP North Carolina.

LEARN MORE ABOUT THE EQUALITY NC FOUNDATION CONFERENCE & GALA: http://equalitync.org/conference.