Record-breaking distance swimmer Diana Nyad does not like labels.
“I’m gay, I’m a pacifist, I’m an animal lover, I’m a Democrat, I’m a liberal, I’m a lot of things, but I refuse to be defined by any of those terms,” Nyad told Watermark shortly before stepping onstage and speaking to nearly 1,000 attendees – mostly women – at the 9th annual United Way Women’s Leadership Luncheon March 17.
Her keynote address focused on her relationship with her Armenian father and how he and other role models helped shape her into the woman who persevered through five attempts to swim through shark-infested waters from Cuba to Florida before she finally succeeded in 2013, at the age of 64.
“You don’t have the big perspective in front of you, you have a moment,” she told the luncheon attendees. “Once you have the dream in your vision, tuck it away and get to work with focus and discipline.”
When Watermark asked how she would inspire young LGBTs, especially during the current tumultuous political times, Nyad admitted that Ted Cruz “scares me to death when it comes to the gay community and the women’s community,” citing what she believes is his desire to intermix church and state, and she feels the LGBT community has a shame problem.
“We have come too far. We are all on this earth deserving of equal treatment and equal chasing of our dreams, “Nyad said. “My message to any kid is you walk into the room, you present yourself proud and focus on what you want to do.”
Bob Brown, president of Heart of Florida United Way, says they chose Nyad to speak “because of her tremendous story of perseverance, because she’s such an inspiration to everybody.”
Brown says the 2016 Women’s Leadership Luncheon is the biggest one yet. The funds raised will provide electronic reading devices to schoolchildren in Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties to help with literacy.
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