Tyrone Smith, award-winning LGBTQ activist and AIDS awareness advocate, has died at 82
He openly affirmed himself as a Black gay man and celebrated as others were able to follow. “Gay men have always been a part of the African American experience,” he told The Inquirer in 2001.
Tyrone Smith, 82, of Philadelphia, award-winning LGBTQ activist, AIDS awareness advocate, community leader, consultant, mentor, and adviser to two mayors, died Tuesday, Feb. 18, of a cardiac event at his home in West Philadelphia.
Mr. Smith moved from North Carolina to North Philadelphia when he was 6 and spent much of his adult life raising awareness of racism, discrimination, the devastation of AIDS, and LGBTQ issues of all kinds. He helped establish the Impact organization in 1984 to address the needs of Black Philadelphians and cofounded Unity Inc. in 1989 and the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council in 2005 to bolster support for Black gay men.
He openly affirmed himself as a Black gay man and celebrated as others were able to follow. “Gay men have always been a part of the African American experience,” he told The Inquirer in 2001. “And our society and our community never made us feel we could fully be ourselves.”
He was a social services adviser to former Mayors Wilson Goode and John F. Street, and a member of or consultant for the Minority AIDS Council, Center for AIDS Research at the University of Pennsylvania, We the People, Colours Organization Inc., Philly Black Pride, and other groups.
He said often he was first driven to confront AIDS after seeing friends contract HIV. “In those days,” he said in a video interview on imfromdriftwood.com, “young people got AIDS, and they died.”
Former colleagues at Penn’s Center for AIDS Research called him “an agent of change” and a “true icon” in a tribute. They said: “Tyrone Smith always had a passion for moving people forward.”
“I look at all these faces on these walls, and I’m empowered every day to do what I can in this fight.”
Daiquiri Robinson, chair of the center’s community advisory board, said in tribute: “He was funny yet fierce and a gentle spirit whose job it was to educate and pave the way for us to continue in this fight.” In 2014, Mr. Smith told Philadelphia magazine: “It’s one of my gifts to be able to share with the old and young, and point them in the direction of resources. Just passing information.”
He collaborated with Black churches on outreach, organized fundraisers, and served on the mayor’s Commission on Sexual Minorities in the 1980s and ‘90s. He told writer Thom Nickels in 2001: “The gay and lesbian community is very divided along racial, sexual, and class lines. When we come together in a mayor’s commission we have to have true diversity when deciding issues collectively. It helps to bring the community together.”
He earned a Red Ribbon Award from the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS for his community health-care work, a Living Legacy Award from Philadelphia’s LGBTQ Hall of Fame, and other awards and citations from city officials and group leaders.
“Tyrone built bridges where none existed and created spaces of empowerment where they were most needed,” City Councilmember Rue Landau told the Philadelphia Gay News in February. A friend and colleague said on Instagram: “His unwavering voice and impactful work continue to resonate through every activist, community engagement specialist, queer board member, executive director, and elected official.”
“What Tyrone taught me was that we have no choice but to be advocates and caretakers at the same time.”
Mr. Smith spoke passionately and persuasively about Black and LGBTQ issues at public events, in videos, and on radio and TV shows. He was quoted often in The Inquirer and other publications. In 2004, he was sentenced to six months’ house arrest and 54 months’ probation, and ordered to pay restitution for his part in a three-person scheme to divert city funds meant for youth counseling to personal accounts.
He more than made up for that, his admirers said, with a renewed sense of purpose for the rest of his life. “He was a truly transformative leader,” said Chris Bartlett, executive director of the William Way LGBT Community Center.
Mr. Smith’s niece Lisa Newman said: “He was fun-loving and easy to talk to, and he listened to you. He was an all-around people person.”
Tyrone Smith was born in Kingston, N.C., on July 14, 1942. He grew up close to his mother and grandparents, and worked over the years in Philadelphia as a lab technician, store clerk, dishwasher, florist, and telephone receptionist.
“To have survived racism and homophobia, it’s a blessing.”
He was part of the Philly drag ballroom scene for years and detailed his personal life in a 1993 interview on outhistory.org, a 2012 interview on imfromdriftwood.com, and elsewhere. He eschewed cell phones, and liked to read, cook, and listen to gospel music.
Artist Barkley L. Hendricks painted a full-body portrait of Mr. Smith in 1976, called it Misc. Tyrone, and added it to his permanent collection. “He was a friend and mentor to many, and will be greatly missed,” colleagues at Penn said in a tribute.
His nephew Reece Newman said: “He was a loving, caring person.”
In addition to his nephew and niece, Mr. Smith is survived by a sister and other relatives.
A celebration of his life is to be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, June 21, at the Church of St. Luke and the Epiphany, 330 S. 13th St., Philadelphia, Pa. 19107.