protest and his arrest (pictured), Smith was invited to meet then-President Obama and attend the ceremony where the policy was repealed

Smith served two tours of duty – one in Kuwait and one in Iraq – during his five years in the Army from 2000 to 2005. It was during this time that he realized he was gay despite 'don't ask, don't tell' - a policy preventing LGBTQ soldiers making their sexual orientation public without risk of being discharged.

In November 2010, five years after he had left the military, Smith and 12 other activists, both military and civilian, handcuffed themselves to the White House fence to protest 'don't ask, don't tell'. They were arrested. A year later they were invited to meet then-President Obama and attend the ceremony wherethe policy was repealed. That was one of Smith's first major steps into LGBTQ activism, which he continues today.

Smith is hardly the first to be African American or gay and conservative. On the long list of conservative African Americans in recent years alone have included Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson, Clueless actress Stacey Dash and former secretaries of state under President George W Bush Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice.

New York City journalist Chadwick Moore, who became conservative after getting backlash from a neutral profile he wrote about Milo Yiannopoulos in 2016, and political commentator Guy Benson are among the most well-known gay conservatives who have also 'come out' in the last couple of years.

One of the biggest influences on Smith