(SFGN) Gay Iraq war veteran, author and LGBT activist Rob Smith will serve as the Grand Marshal for 2014 Key West Pride during multiple events starting on June 11 and culminating in the Pride Parade on June 15.

Smith served in the army for 5 years as an openly gay soldier. He wrote the number 1 bestselling memoir “Closets, Combat and Coming Out: Coming of Age as a Gay Man” during the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” era, which is the first Iraq war memoir written by an African-American author.

In 2010, Smith was arrested at the White House with 12 other LGBT activists in protest of the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” law. Since then he has spoken at universities and conferences as an LGBT activist.