Teri Johnston 

Photo by Nick Doll

Teri Johnston knows that, as an LGBTQ woman, she’s been lucky enough to live her life and career openly. Still, she says, “I am amazed on a daily basis at the level of fear, intimidation, and discriminatory tendencies that lurk deep inside many. I have always believed that I control a great deal of my fate.” To her, that’s meant transcending the obstacles often thrown at women in general and gay women in particular. As a college student, she saw success on the softball field, becoming a three-time All-American player on one of the first ever sports scholarships offered to women. She later embarked upon a successful career in the private sector before opening her own construction and renovation company in 1995. But her most recent accomplishment—becoming only the second woman to serve as mayor of Key West and the first openly gay woman to become mayor of any Florida city—is one that she didn’t have control over. “It kind of chose me,” she says. After leading a successful grassroots campaign to lower windstorm insurance rates across the state, “city government was the next natural step for me.” The most rewarding aspect of her current job, she says, is representing the people she serves in a community that strives to let everyone live openly, and without fear. “The official motto of Key West,” she says, regardless of one’s sexual orientation, “is ‘One Human Family.’ We all find our way in this diverse, inclusive community.” —RK