Who? Nadine Smith, 42, has been the executive director of Equality Florida since its inception in 1997. The organization's mission statement says, "Equality Florida is our statewide lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights organization working to change Florida law so that no one suffers harassment or discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity and expression."
Sphere of influence: Equality Florida reaches more than 60,000 GLBT-supportive households in Florida. Smith is visible wherever GLBT rights are challenged. During the Susan Stanton hearings in Largo, she was arrested for distributing fliers. The charges were later dropped. Smith is also an effective legislative lobbyist and lives in Tallahassee during sessions.
How she makes a difference: Every advocacy group needs a tireless, organized and effective leader, and Smith has embraced the role. In '95, she was campaign manager for Citizens for a Fair Tampa, a group that successfully prevented the city of Tampa from repealing its human rights ordinance, which includes sexual orientation. Smith does not restrict her efforts to GLBT concerns. Her work also encompasses crime, poverty, education, race, the environment and other social issues.
CL: At what point in your life did you become aware that you might follow the path toward being an influencer?
Smith: My family moved from Riverside, Calif., to Panama City when I was in third grade. It was interesting because we were among the first black families on the block. [The school] put me in the most basic reading course — my transcripts hadn't arrived — and I remember I could spell the word "tarantula." And I remember the teacher getting angry, like I was showing her up. The presence of a kind of contempt for people who were not in the majority has been visible to me from a very young age.
And so I got this desire to speak up when that happens, no matter what form it takes. I come from a family that taught us no one's any better than you, and you're no better than anybody. They taught me that with regard to racism, and I've applied it to all areas of my life.
What have you learned about the art of effective influencing?
Eyes on the prize. [Pause] Meaning that there are times when a strong and visible protest of an injustice is the right thing to do, because it's strategically the right thing to do. Be willing to step up and take whatever hit you're going to take. And there are times when quiet conversations that are persuasive, that no one will hear about, no press release will ever be written about — and just be willing to recede into the scenery — when that is the right move. I don't profess to have mastered when one is appropriate and the other is appropriate, but I think I get better as time goes by.
Is there a single problem that matters to you most right now?
I do believe they're all connected — how we treat each other, how we treat the planet. What matters to me are the things that cause us to not look at how we are different and therefore separate, but look at the things that we can do together.
Here's an example: Nobody wants their child to be bullied. Nobody does. So over the last seven-plus years, we've been organizing a lobby day in Tallahassee that brings students and parents and teachers to the capitol to talk about this epidemic of bullying. Most of us only hear about it [after] it's gotten so bad that someone's gotten killed. I think we are coming close to passing, perhaps as soon as this next year, a bill that would address the roots of it — and not wait until someone's going to the hospital and someone's going to jail.
The process of bringing all these people together that wouldn't necessarily travel under the same political banner has been evidence to me of how important it is for us to get past labels and ideologies and get to the actual work.
We want our children safe. I don't want schools to breed the kind of hatred that becomes hate violence in the street, and you don't want that either. We have a bullying culture all the way from the White House down the schoolhouse right now.
Who in the Tampa Bay area influences you?
Oh, a lot of people, for different reasons. Michael Friencle influences me. He was a student at Brandon High School who helped form the Gay Straight Alliance there. He just graduated; he's in college now. He could've gone through school closeted, but he's somebody who has never been afraid to speak truth to power. He's smart; he's creative; he's strategic. I remember they were fighting to stop the GSA from being taken out of Hillsborough High School, and he brought reams of paper to represent the amount of paper needed to get permission slips to all the students. It was a very effective visual display.
Are there any people who have influenced you, or you particularly admire, who are more a part of the establishment?
[Former Hillsborough County Commissioner] Jan Platt. [Tampa city council woman] Linda Saul-Sena. [Hillsborough Clerk of the Courts] Pat Frank. Pat came to the March For Women's Lives, in '93 or '94 in Ybor City. A lot of [high-profile] people showed up, began the march where the camera could get their picture, and as soon as that passed they started jumping in their cars. With the sun as hot as it was, everyone understood if Pat didn't want to go the distance. She said, "I came to march." And she finished.
This article appears in Oct 10-16, 2007.