Carlos Guillermo Smith (R) shows off his Breakthrough Award from the Victory Institute with the honor’s namesake, Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin (Photo courtesy Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith’s Facebook).
ORLANDO | Florida State Representative Carlos Guillermo Smith (D-Orlando) was recognized with the Victory Institute’s inaugural Tammy Baldwin Breakthrough Award during the 2017 International LGBTQ Leaders Conference in Washington, DC on Dec. 6.
Smith was nominated along with five other LGBTQ elected officials including sitting mayors, councilpersons and legislators from across the country. The award was designed to recognize an “up-and-coming LGBTQ elected official who is driving equality forward.”
The award is named after the Wisconsin Senator Tammy Baldwin who, in 2012, became the first openly LGBTQ member of the United States Senate.
“I’m humbled,” Smith says. “There were five other openly LGBTQ elected officials nominated and they are all doing great work. The fact that they choose me for an award named after an inspiring person like Tammy Baldwin was very humbling for me.”
Smith received the award from the Victory Institute’s now former CEO Aisha Moodie-Mills at a ceremony in DC.
“I want to dedicate the Tammy Baldwin Breakthrough Award, not only to the 49 angels we lost at Pulse, but also to the families and the hundreds of survivors who were left behind. To the first responders who are still struggling with the very real issue of PTSD. I especially want to dedicate the award to my friend Omar Delgado,” Smith said from the stage while accepting his award.
Delgado, one of the first police officers to respond to the deadly Pulse shooting in 2016, has been in the national spotlight since it was announced earlier this month that the Eatonville Town Council unanimously agreed to terminate Delgado at the end of the year.
Delgado was the officer who pulled victim Angel Colon out of Pulse and is credited with saving Colon’s life. Colon had been shot six times by the gunman before Delgado had gotten to him in the nightclub.
“My message to Omar is that the united Orlando community has your back,” Smith said in his speech.
The Pulse shooting has shined a light on many topics of discussion in the community that were not always seen as LGBTQ issues before the tragedy including gun control, immigration and PTSD.
“There’s just so many different issues that I have been excited to be a part of along with this community, and that’s why I dedicated the award when I received it to the Pulse community and particularly to Omar Delgado,” Smith says.
One fight that Smith is taking up in Tallahassee is that of first responders and their eligibility for Worker’s Compensation benefits. Under current Florida law a first responder must have a physical injury into order to qualify for Worker’s Comp. Mental injuries, including PTSD, are not covered unless it is accompanied by a physical injury.
“That’s problematic because it creates a system where first responders who are suffering from PTSD are not getting the support that they need,” Smith says. “Not having serious conditions like PTSD on equal footing like physical injuries further stigmatizes the condition. It perpetuates this incorrect point of view and perception about PTSD and mental health which is that it is not a serious condition.”
Smith is working with Democratic Florida Senator Victor Torres and Republican Florida Rep. Mike Miller in a bi-partisan effort to change the Worker’s Compensation benefits for first responders in the state.
“I think that the Victory Institute’s decision to choose me underscores how important the work is that we are doing right now in Orlando and Florida, that I have been a part of,” Smith says.
Baldwin recognized all the work Smith is doing for Orlando and the community, taking to Twitter offering her congratulations to Smith and thanking him for all the work he does.
Smith met with the namesake of his Breakthrough Award in DC the following day before Baldwin went out to address the attendees of the LGBTQ Leaders Conference.
“This was the second time I’ve met her, we met for the first time at this exact conference last year when I pinned a Pulse ribbon on her,” Smith recalls. “I gave her a gift from myself and Ben Johansen from the Orlando Ribbon Project during our meeting, which was the Orlando Ribbon Project Christmas tree ornament. I gave her that as a token of appreciation for her work advocating for the LGBTQ community and she was very appreciative, she loved it.”
