Former coach is now advocate for LGBT equality

A profile of former coach Denny Smith from the St Cloud [Minnesota] Times:

Denny Smith takes a hard line on the athletic field and in the classroom, but he has a soft spot for his son.

The 66-year-old from St. Cloud has become a tireless advocate for promoting “equality, respect and dignity for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people” after his 41-year-old son came out to the former coach.

“He said, ‘Mom and Dad, this is the hardest thing I’ve ever had to tell you: I’m gay,’ ” said Smith, executive director of the nonprofit Winning Marriage Equality. “We cried — not because he was gay but because of what he was going to have to go through because of that.”

Smith was a teacher and coach in Montevideo from 1973-78. He then worked as a motivational speaker from 1978-99 and then returned to the classroom as a math teacher and basketball coach at Technical High School in St. Cloud for almost a dozen years before retiring in 2010 to advocate for LGBT equality.

“The first words out of my mouth were, ‘Well, Kyle, that’s the way God made you, and I don’t argue with God, so we’re OK with this,’ ” Smith said of his son, who lives in Seattle.

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