The Human Rights Campaign’s North Carolina Chapter came together February 8 for their annual dinner meeting at Charlotte’s Uptown Le Meridien location.
Opening doors to ticket holders around 5 p.m., the yearly occasion reportedly welcomed more than 300 guests. The format for the evening allowed for an open dress code, with HRC’s guidelines stating the importance of just being there versus meeting a certain bar for entry.
Once the main event kicked off around 6:30pm, familiar faces inside and out of HRC made the occasion to speak on the challenges coming in the year ahead. The highlighted speakers from the night include Kelley Robinson, HRC’s president; Anderson Clayton, the NC Democratic Party Chair; Kimberly Locke, a tenured singer and advocate for raising awareness of HIV/AIDS and breast cancer; Dana Goldberg, an openly queer comic as well as regular attendee to HRC’s yearly events; Thorgy Thor, a New York based drag queen and violinist that previously made waves on various seasons of RuPaul’s Drag Race; and HRC Co-Chairs Dan Cary & Sarah Castleman, representing HRC’s North Carolina chapter.
While many details from the full night’s schedule still currently remain for those that attended the event, HRC North Carolina expressed immense joy within a short recap posted along their social media channels.
“What a night!,” the post reads. “We are still processing how amazing and special our dinner was last night. The people, speakers, performers and overall vibe of the night was exactly what we needed! We will post more pics and thoughts in a few days but for now we just want to say thank you to each of you who came out to support our continued fight for equality in North Carolina.”