Bold was the word of the night at Equality Florida’s Greater St. Petersburg Gala held at the Mahaffey Theater May 7.
Bold colors and clothing design, bold expressions in the artwork up for auction; but more importantly, bold statements from Equality Florida’s Executive Director Nadine Smith as she issued challenges to everyone in the room to stand up against hate, bigotry and bullying.
“We have seen hundreds of anti-LGBT bills introduced all over the country and Florida is no exception. We had a bill that was worse in so many ways than the one in North Carolina,” Smith told the crowd.
Smith was referencing House Bill 401, Florida’s “religious freedom” bill introduced this past legislative session, which, among other things, would have allowed healthcare providers to turn away patients if they objected to their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
“The good news is that billed died in Florida. As a former reporter, let me edited that, we killed that bill in Florida,” Smith said.
Smith also discussed the need to end bullying in the schools in Florida and throughout the country.
“As proud as I am about the policy changes we have fought for over these last two decades, the real fight is changing the culture. We don’t want to stop discrimination after it happens, we want to pull homophobia, transphobia and all these bigotries up by their roots and where those roots are found are in our schools,” Smith said.
Equality Florida celebrated several members in the community for their tireless efforts in the fight for LGBT equality. They honored Chris Rudisill and Ashley Brundage with the Voice for Equality Award and presented St. Petersburg mayor Rick Kriseman with the Straight Ally for Equality Award.
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