On the one-year anniversary of the devastating attack on an LGBTQ nightclub in Orlando, Equality Florida director Nadine Smith headlined an event in Gulfport that highlighted recent progress society has made toward equality — and how there's much more work to be done. Monday night’s event took place at Gulfport Public Library just as a set of intense storms was washing through, as lightning blazed and wind howled, which seemed apropos of Smith's passionate yet hopeful message.
Smith opened with an anecdote about last year’s shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando. She was camping with her wife and child at the time of the incident. Her phone began to light up with notifications. Smith promptly checked into a hotel room, while she spent the next couple of weeks meeting with people and raising money for the victims. She wanted to ensure all money raised went to victims. The GoFundMe page set up to raise money for the victims quickly shot into the millions.
Smith referenced the storm while discussing the tragic psychological effect the shooting had on those who survived the shooting — and why survivors and families of people who didn't make it need support.
“This thunder – this sound – is more than they can handle,” she said.
The key to preventing such violence in the future is to get to the root of the underlying hatred, she said, and that happens at home and at school.
“We have to challenge it [hate] at its source,” Smith said, adding that while it's tough to control what gets taught at home, schools can and must be welcoming to all students, regardless of sexual orientation; students need to feel safe and accepted.
“Superintendents need to shift the tone – shift the culture,” Smith advised.
She added that in addition to creating a culture of acceptance at a young age, it's important for people to acknowledge each other’s grief; that each person reacts differently to adversity.
“We have permission to grieve and be angry,” Smith said. “There are things we don't recover from, and that's okay.”
For some, including Smith, even something so fundamental as coming out to one's parents can have a lasting traumatic effect. Smith described the moment she came out to her father.
“When my father found out I was gay, it was the last day I lived under his roof,” she recounted. Smith went on to hop around from couch to couch. She worked several different jobs and went on to put herself though college.
Though the two were estranged for a time, her father ultimately became a large source of support; he even walked her down the aisle and has attended activist events with her.
Throughout Monday's event, Smith acknowledged the progress made within the LGBTQ community toward equal rights, but also noted the struggles the community still faces, especially at a time when Trumpism seems to encourage an anti-LGBTQ mindset in some circles, and as some ultraconservative lawmakers try to pass legislation, supposedly in the name of "religious freedom" that can promote discrimination.
“As bleak as the national landscape is, it has been bleaker for us,” Smith said.
Smith said she hopes that everyone will one day stand together for total equality, and points to the gains made in recent years as a reason to be optimistic.
Along with tens of thousands of other equality advocates, Smith will be attending the St. Petersburg Pride Parade on Saturday and Sunday, June 24 and 25, where Equality Florida will have an information booth for those that want to find out more about how to volunteer or donate to the cause.
Find out more about Equality Florida here.
