A former journalist, Smith has written syndicated columns for various gay and mainstream publications. Smith was an award-winning investigative journalist for WUSF, the National Public Radio affiliate in Tampa, and later became a reporter for the Tampa Tribune. Smith also freelanced for national and local publications.
Smith was the first openlylesbian African-American to run for Tampa City Council, earning the most votes in the primary and garnering 42% in the run-off in 1991.[6]
In 1993, Smith was part of the historic oval office meeting between then-incumbent President of the United States Bill Clinton and LGBT social movements leaders. Smith was co-chair of the 1993 March on Washington, coordinating national and international media.[7]
Smith served as campaign manager for Citizens for a Fair Tampa in 1995, a successful effort to prevent the repeal of the city's human rights ordinance, which included sexual orientation.[8]
Smith served on the Board for Fairness for All Families from 2006-2009, a grassroots effort to protect LGBT families in the face of a ballot measure that banned recognition of marriage between same sex couples.[9] The measure which passed with approx 62% of the vote[10] also banned protection that are "substantial equivalent of marriage".[11]
In 2007, Smith was arrested at a Largo City Council hearing after handing someone a flier that had the words "Don't Discriminate" printed on it.[12] The council was debating whether or not to fire Susan Stanton, the transgender city manager.[13]
In 2022, Smith received the "but for" Leadership Florida Award which recognizes people who have worked to improve the lives of their fellow Floridians[15]
In 2022, Smith was named by Time to the Time 100, their annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world[16]
In 2022, the GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders awarded Smith the Spirit of Justice Award for her work on "national human rights advocate, organizer, and LGBTQ equality champion for over three decades"[17]
Quotes
"George W. Bush and Al Gore shouldn't be talking about who's going to blink first. They should be talking about how are we going to restore faith in democracy in the American people, because it's been sorely tested right now."[18]
"They don't ask, we don't tell and rarely are they required to see with their own eyes the deep harm and real pain inflicted by laws that tell us we are less than our neighbors."[19]
"When fair-minded Floridians come to understand just how harmful this initiative is to so many Florida families, they will reject this amendment. Laws should not make it harder to take care of the people you love."[20]
"As a child I was told that Rosa Parks was tired and fed up one fateful day and decided right then and there that she would not give up her seat. I was impressed by her courage. Later, when I learned that her protest had been contemplated at length with the consequences fully measured, I was inspired even more deeply by her willingness to intentionally sacrifice her freedom and safety to make the country confront the ugliness of Jim Crow."[19]
"We march, we lobby, we educate, we protest and we should and we must. But it seems increasingly clear to me that we must now do what civil rights movements have always done: with forethought and solemnity place ourselves visibly at odds with an unjust law to provoke the consequences that can prick the conscience of our country."[19]
"Every civil rights struggle in this country has required people to sacrifice and make institutionalized discrimination so visible no one could avert their eyes. People stepped forward knowing they could lose their homes, lose their jobs, their safety. They walked willingly toward hateful mobs and police with snarling dogs. They turned a proposed one day bus boycott into 381 days of solidarity. They sacrificed and the country watched and changed. Every civil rights struggle in this country has required people to sacrifice. The country is watching. Are we ready to do the same?"[19]
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