Nadine Smith provides a face and voice for GLBT equality that resonates across the United States – from Tallahassee, Fla., where she lives during legislative session as the executive director and co-founder of Equality Florida, to San Diego, where she will keynote San Diego LGBT Pride’s 30th anniversary Spirit of Stonewall rally Friday, July 30.

Florida is a battleground state in an election year that has every politician across the country scrambling for a position on same-sex marriage. Just last week, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta upheld Florida’s blanket ban on adoption by gays and lesbians by refusing to reconsider the case of four gay men who challenged the 1977 law passed during the height of Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign, and an appeals court in Lakeland, Fla., ruled that individuals who have undergone sexual reassignment surgery cannot legally marry as their new gender.

“That was just a devastating ruling, and plans are underway to appeal it,” Smith said of the transgender ruling. “It’s just one of the most heartless and cruel examples of the kind of bigotry inflicted on our community.”

In response to the heated political climate across the state, Equality Florida joined up with 30 other groups for a massive voter mobilization effort called TurnOut Florida to ensure that the GLBT community is a formidable force in this year’s elections, from the presidential race down to local offices. The effort seeks to mobilize as many as 350,000 voters.

“What’s clear is that the far right has made our community a target, and they’ve done it because they think that there is political gain in attacking us,” Smith said. “Fundamentally, TurnOut Florida and our get-out-the-vote efforts are our community’s opportunity to let them know that not only is there no gain from attacking us, but there’s a cost.”

Smith knows a thing or two about political strategy. In 1991, she was the first openly lesbian African American to run for Tampa City Council, earning 42 percent of the vote. A few years later, she waged a successful battle to prevent Tampa’s human rights ordinance from being repealed, and served as co-chair of the 1993 March on Washington, using her media savvy to organize the global press team.

In 1997, Smith co-founded Equality Florida, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization that educates, advocates and lobbies on behalf of GLBT issues. Equality Florida works to create safe schools, introducing the Dignity for All Students Act that includes sexual orientation and gender identity and expression in its list of protections; educates the media; and lobbies politicians with GLBT-friendly legislation, such as a bill that would strike down Florida’s anti-gay adoption law and bills in favor of marriage equality.

Among the groups allied with Equality Florida in the TurnOut Florida campaign are the Florida Consumer Action Network, the Human Rights Campaign and People for the American Way.

“Clearly, [Florida] is a swing state,” said Smith, “and arguably the most critical swing state, and in the wake of the 2000 election debacle here, we believe we have a higher burden than any other state in restoring confidence in the electoral process.”

Smith said TurnOut Florida needs to raise $200,000 in the next 30 days to fund their counter-campaign. “It’s clear that our greatest opportunities and our greatest challenges are occurring at the state level – whether it’s civil unions in Vermont or marriage in Massachusetts or the overturn of the Lawrence decision – all of these battles right now that we’re seeing are being fought at the state level, and as a movement, we’ve got to focus on winning state by state by state. … Until our community is recognized and respected as a force at the ballot box, then the ability to change laws in our state continues to be hampered. So change is coming; how quickly or how slowly is going to depend on how much strength we show when it comes time to vote in November.”

Visit www.gaylesbiantimes.com for a link to the TurnOut Florida website. The Spirit of Stonewall rally takes place Friday, July 30, at 7:30 p.m. at the Organ Pavilion in Balboa Park. Admission is free. For more information, call (619) 297-7683.