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Thomas Smith

Thomas Smith has been a Registered Nurse for 36 years and has worked for the Visiting Nurse Association of Brooklyn for the past 33 years.

A few of the organizations and projects he has worked for and on are:

  • Stonewall Democratic Club (SDC): board member and former President.

  • As President of SDC, had the NYC Dignity in All Schools Act (DASA) bill introduced and passed and had Domestic Partners inserted into the NYC Human Rights Law as a protected class.

  • A former spokesperson for the Coalition for Lesbian & Gay Rights (CLGR) the organization that passed the NYC Human Rights Bill in 1986; CLGR gave the first two thousand dollars to organize the 1987 March on Washington.

  • CLGR held the first hearings on homeless PWA’s in NYC; CLGR persuaded the City & State to hold the first hearings on homeless PWA’s.

  • CLGR held hearings called “Why Shouldn’t We Boycott Channel 13,” which helped get “In the Life” on the air.

  • Co-founder of Family Diversity Coalition which wrote & introduced the first City & State Domestic Partnership bills in 1987 & 1988 – one of the first in the nation. The coalition was a major force in persuading Mayor Dinkins to write the first executive order establishing Domestic Partnerships.

  • Founding member of Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation 1985

  • Former board member of the Metropolitan Community Church of Brooklyn 1984-1986

  • Co-founder Outlooks 1986, an LGBT radio program on WBAI, which was on the air for 8 yrs. (Renamed OUT-FM.)

  • Co-founder of AllOutArts1992, an LGBT arts not-for-profit; AllOutArts runs the annual Fresh Fruit Festival.

  • Help organize the not-for-profit for OutMusic.

  • Help organize the not-for-profit Figment and arts, not for profit runs a yearly festival on Governor’s Island.

  • Co-founder of the Stonewall Business Association 1991

  • Co-founder of The Wall Street Project and in 1993 did the first survey on the Fortune 500 on LGBT employee rights in US history. Alan Hevesi, at the urging of The Wall Street Project, introduced the first shareholder resolution in the history of the United States requiring that the Cracker Barrel Old Time Restaurant Corp. have a written policy protecting its Lesbian & Gay employees against discrimination.

  • Co-founded Equality Project, a not-for-profit, and co-authored the Equality Principles on Corporate Responsibility (Ten principles on corporate conduct and behavior); the Equality Principles which became the basis of the HRC Corporate Index.

  • Worked with former NYC Comptroller, Bill Thompson, and pension fund, NYCERS, to adopt the Equality Principles; to date, over 400 Fortune 500 companies have adopted the principles through the use of the multi-billion dollar pension funds and shareholder resolutions.

  • Co-authored the NYC Bias-Related Violence Law 1993

  • Co-authored the NYC Anti-Smoking Law which made it illegal to smoke in restaurants, café’s, hospitals, and other public spaces in 1994

  • Co-authored the NYC Human Rights Posting Bill 2003

  • As a Stonewall board member asked for the New Current Senior LGBT funding law just passed 2011 the first to be introduced in NY State

  • As a Stonewall Board member asked that the NYS Panic Defense bill be introduced in NYS

  • Former Board and Founding board member of Manhattan Mustangs, a not-for-profit raising money through dances.

  • Former Board member of Truitte Educational Center, a school for gifted children in

      East New York, Brooklyn. 1982

  • Advisory board member of Family Matters, a new group forming to help provide peer counseling over the phone to families of LGBT people 2008

  • Founding President of the Brooklyn Community Pride Center  2008-2011

  • Founding Member  Stonewall Community Development Corp 2013

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