Singer Chely Wright, Golden State
Warriors President Rick Welts and Houston Mayor Annise Parker will be
honored for their gay advocacy during the fifth annual Out
& Equal Leadership Celebration.
“We are so proud to be honoring these
three people whose lives and choices have made a significant
difference. Each of them has been a pioneer,” Selisse Berry, the
founding executive director of Out & Equal Workplace Advocates,
said in a statement. “Chely Wright, Annise Parker and Rick Welts
each break the stereotypes the public has about LGBT people and each
of them has shown enormous courage in being themselves and bringing
all of who they are to their careers.”
At the March 14 event at the
InterContinental Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco, Wright, Parker
and Welts will be recognized for taking “the lead on fundamental
issues of equal rights in and out of the workplace.”
Wright came out gay in her 2010 memoir
Like Me: Confessions of a Heartland Country Singer,
becoming the first openly gay country music star. Her
non-profit recently opened its first LGBT
center in Kansas City, Missouri.
Welts came out gay during an interview
with The New York Times last year, about the same time as CNN
anchor Don Lemon. At the time, he was the CEO of the Phoenix Suns.
In 2009, Parker made history as the
first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city.
(Related: Annise
Parker nudges Obama on gay marriage; Mayor called on to resign.)