Donna Smith

February 24, 2026

[This webpage and interview record was created by Emily Leonard in collaboration with the Westchester LGBTQ+ History Project as part of a practicum course called “Queering the Library” taught by Benjamin Zender, PhD (Endeavor Foundation Public Humanities Fellow, Sarah Lawrence College and Yonkers Public Library) during the Spring 2025 semester.]

Born in Kansas, social worker and activist Donna Smith moved to Westchester in the early 1980s. She originally moved to New York City from Boulder, CO to pursue a doctorate at Columbia, and relocated to Westchester with her then-partner in 1983.

In the early 2000s, Donna met feminist and activist Barbara Love. They shared their feminism and activism, and were together until Love’s death in 2022.

*From Barbara Love’s memoir “There At The Dawning: Memories of a Lesbian Feminist” (published 2021)*

Her first involvement in the Westchester lesbian community was through the Lesbian Task Force of Southern Westchester NOW. Since then, Donna has been involved with organizations such as the LOFT, Lambda Peer Support Services, Center Lane, Westchester Rainbow Alliance, PFLAG, and SAGE.

In this interview with the Westchester LGBTQ+ History Project, Donna talks about her time living and working in Westchester; the people she’s met, loved, and lost; and the organizations that have shaped the lives of LGBTQ+ Westchester residents from the eighties onward.

She also discusses changing notions of community as the years have gone on, including how communities shrink as people age, and a worry for the future as she sees this happening within her own peer group. She talks about how shifting landscapes and political change affects the younger generation, and expresses her concerns for young LGBTQ+ individuals forming communities in this digital, decentralized day and age.

“You just have to step outside your own comfort zone and take a little chance. I see this group of women that I have lunch with every month, I think they’re all losing friends. If you don’t replace those friends, it will get smaller and smaller and smaller until you have none. Then it’s a hell of a time to begin to make friends.”