20 OUTstanding Virginians Named by Equality Virginia

As part of the events recognizing Equality Virginia's 20th anniversary this year, at the Commonwealth Dinner in Richmond on April 4, 2009, Equality Virginia will be honoring twenty gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Virginians who have made a mark. The event should be a great affair - the boyfriend has already bought us tickets to attend - and the headliner for the evenings entertainment is Leslie Jordan (at left). What has struck me about the honorees is that I know one of them who is still living and knew two others during my law school days.

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Rita Mae Brown, Crozet-based screenwriter and author, most notably of "Rubyfruit Jungle."

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Clarence Cain, U.Va. Law School graduate whose life and death from HIV/AIDS inspired the 1993 film “Philadelphia”.

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Meg Christian, women’s music icon and founder of Olivia Records.
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Marge Connelly, Richmond financial industry executive.

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Adam Ebbin, the first openly gay member of Virginia’s General Assembly and founder of Virginia Partisans Gay and Lesbian Democratic Club.

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Jay Fisette, the first openly gay elected official in Virginia and Arlington County Board member.

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Claus Ihlemann, Norfolk activist and owner of Decorum Furniture.
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Jon Klein, founder of Diversity Thrift and Richmond Organization for Sexual Minority Youth (ROSMY).
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Beth Marschak, Richmond activist, author, and historian.
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Lucy Randolph Mason, labor organizer who helped pass 1938 Fair Labor Standards Act.
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Diane Schroer, winner of landmark transgender workplace discrimination case.
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Tony Segura and Marsh Harris: Segura was a founder of the Mattachine Society and Harris was a prolific author of gay pulp fiction.

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L.A. “Shep” Shepard and Norma Hofheimer, mid-century lesbian activist couple from Richmond.
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Wanda Sykes, Emmy-award winning writer and comedian/actress.
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Tracy Thorne-Begland, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell activist and deputy commonwealth's attorney of Richmond.
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Lawrence Webb, the first openly gay black elected official in Virginia and Falls Church City Council member.
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Charles Whitebread, former UVA law professor and GLBT philanthropist.
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Mel White and Gary Nixon, founders of Lynchburg-based Soulforce.
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Bob Witeck, Northern Virginia business owner and GLBT media consultant.

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The living honoree who I know is Claus Ihlemann, a fellow Norfolk business owner, and the 2008 Legends Gala honoree. Over the years Claus has been a great benefactor not only for LGBT causes but also for the local arts. He and his partner are wonderful guys and Claus truly deserves the honor.

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The other honorees that I knew personally are Clarence Cain, who was a classmate, and Charles Whitebread who was a law professor at the University of Virginia (his younger brother was in my class as well). When I first heard of Clarence's death via the UVA alumni magazine, nothing was said of how he died. Likewise, even when the movie Philadelphia came out, the local media did nothing to link the movie's story line to the life of a local native. Homophobia dies hard here in Virginia. A 1990 New York Times story gives the real life details of Clarence's struggles and can be found here.

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As for Charlie Whitebread, he was an amazing professor and a great guy. He was also a willing mentor to his students and a lot of fun. Invitations to his Halloween masquerade parties were highly sought after and he always put on an amazing and imaginative event. I was truly saddened when I saw a memorial to him in a recent alumni publication.