Voice for Equality: Annise Parker

Annise Parker is a United States politican, the mayor-elect of Houston, Texas, the fourth most populous city in the U.S. She is the current Controller of the City of Houston. Previously she served as an at-large member of the Houston City Council, a position she had held since 1997. Parker placed first in the November 2009 mayoral election, but failed to capture a majority of the vote. She defeated attorney Gene Locke, the second-place candidate, in a December 2009 run-off election. Upon taking office as mayor in January, Parker will be the city's second female mayor, as well as the first openly gay mayor of a major U.S. city with over 600,000 residents. Houston has 2.2 million residents within its city limits. Learn more here.

In December of 2009, days before being elected the first out lesbian Mayor of Houston, Annise Parker gave an interview to Adam Bink for the Bilerico Project on being a prominent openly LGBT candidate and self-avowed activist in one of the reddest states in America, and her perspective on some of the recent losses on marriage equality, and strategy on where to go from here. [Link] Her comments included:

I've been an out, gay activist since the 70s. I helped found the gay student organization at my university. I was, for a decade in the 80s, arguably the most visible lesbian activist in Houston for a very long time. Texas lost marriage a few years ago. I really take the long view. We lose battles, but we're winning the hearts and minds of this war. And we just have to keep chipping away, coming out, being visible, integrating our concerns into the issues of our society at all levels, and we're going to get there.

Freedom to Marry salutes newly-elected Houston Mayor, Annise Parker, as a Voice for Equality! Learn about our many other Voices for Equality here.

If Mayor Parker's example and dedication inspire you, get involved.

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