ABOVE: Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith delivers her Tampa Gala keynote address Feb. 21. (Photo by Dylan Todd)
TAMPA | Equality Florida welcomed supporters to Armature Works Feb. 21 for the nonprofit’s annual Tampa Gala, raising more than $310,000 in its statewide fight for equality.
The sold out gathering featured live auctions led by former Hillsborough County Commissioner and current Clerk of the Circuit Court candidate Kevin Beckner, all benefiting the organization’s efforts. It also honored activists Don Murray and Wayne Spiwak with the 2020 Voice for Equality Award.
“Always marching to the beat of their own drum, Don and Wayne have challenged the norm since they met 29 years ago,” Equality Florida shared. “They just like to think of it as ‘doing the right thing.’ As the first same-sex couple to adopt in Florida, they consider themselves blessed with their wonderful son Mark.”
The duo’s advocacy has long focused on LGBTQ youth. In April of 2019, Murray helped lead the first LGBTQ ministry in the Catholic Diocese of St. Petersburg focused on providing a safe and affirming space for LGBTQ youth in the church. Since its inception it has grown from six to more than 50 members.
“In the name of LGBTQ equality, Don and Wayne have sued states, met with city council members to fight for our civil rights and worked with Christian mothers who just want their children back,” Equality Florida noted. “Don and Wayne are helping to define the ‘new normal.’”
The evening also highlighted a number of elected officials from throughout Tampa, including Mayor Jane Castor. She began her remarks by thanking attendees for supporting civil rights statewide.
“We have made so much progress,” Castor said, “but it oftentimes feels like two steps forward and one step back. So we have to stay united. We have to stay together to ensure that everyone is treated fairly – not only in our community, but in our entire state.”
Castor called Tampa a unified and diverse city, adding that every attendee was essential in the fight for equality. “One of the things that we benefit from here in this community is having everyone working together, whether it’s on the local, state or federal level,” she said. “It boils down to treating everyone with dignity and respect.”
Equality Florida Executive Director Nadine Smith subsequently delivered the evening’s keynote address, detailing the organization’s thriving programs. She also called on supporters to help them reach voters in 2020 to defeat Donald Trump.
“In 2016, we said we have 1.4 million people in the state of Florida who are pro-equality voters, who believe what we believe, but who might not turn out to vote if we didn’t explain to them what the stakes were,” Smith shared. “Because you invested, because you contributed, we turned out 446,000 voters who might not have otherwise voted.
“There were 162,000 votes that were never heard because we lacked the resources to educate and mobilize,” she continued. “We cannot stand in front of you [on November 4, 2020] to say we did not have the resources to turn out every single person that cares about LGBTQ equality.”
Smith concluded by calling the 2020 presidential election the “most consequential election of our lifetimes,” noting that “what happens in Florida dictates what happens nationally.”
She added that Equality Florida’s staff, board and volunteers would make Floridians proud, thanking supporters for making their work possible.
To see Watermark’s full gallery of photos from the evening, click here. For more information about Equality Florida, visit EQFL.org.
