Annise Danette Parker (born May 17, 1956) is an American politician who served as the
61st Mayor of Houston, Texas, from 2010 until 2016. She also served as an at-large member of the
Houston City Council
The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.
Currently, there are sixteen members, 11 elected from council districts and five at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, w ...
from 1998 to 2003 and city controller from 2004 to 2010.
Parker was
Houston
Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 i ...
's second female mayor (after
Kathy Whitmire
Kathryn Jean Whitmire (née Niederhofer; born August 15, 1946) is an American politician, businesswoman, and accountant best known as the first woman to serve as Mayor of Houston, serving for five consecutive two-year terms from 1982 to 1991. Fro ...
), and one of the first openly gay mayors of a major U.S. city, with Houston being the most populous U.S. city to elect an openly gay mayor until
Lori Lightfoot
Lori Elaine Lightfoot (born August 4, 1962) is an American attorney and politician serving since 2019 as the 56th mayor of Chicago. She is a member of the Democratic Party. Before becoming mayor, Lightfoot worked in private legal practice as ...
was elected mayor of
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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in
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
.
Following the voter-approval of Proposition 2 on November 3, 2015, which extended the terms of the Mayor, City Controller, and City Councilmembers to two four-year terms, Parker became the last Houston Mayor to be limited to serving three two-year terms.
Early life and education
Parker was born in Houston on May 17, 1956, and grew up in the community of
Spring Branch, where she attended public schools. Her mother was a bookkeeper, and her adoptive father worked for the
Red Cross
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
. She lived briefly in Mississippi and South Carolina.
In 1971, when Parker was 15, her family moved to a U.S. Army post in
Mannheim
Mannheim (; Palatine German: or ), officially the University City of Mannheim (german: Universitätsstadt Mannheim), is the second-largest city in the German state of Baden-Württemberg after the state capital of Stuttgart, and Germany's ...
, Germany for two years. In Germany, she volunteered in the Red Cross youth service organization and worked at the post library.
Growing up, Parker was extremely shy and suffered from extreme anxiety. Her family even nicknamed her "turtle", and she maintains a turtle collection today.
Parker began attending
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a private research university in Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranked among the top universities ...
on a
National Merit
The National Merit Scholarship Program is a United States academic scholarship competition for recognition and university scholarships administered by the National Merit Scholarship Corporation (NMSC), a privately funded, not-for-profit organizati ...
scholarship in 1974, working several jobs to pay for her room and board.
While at Rice, Parker founded a lesbian student group.
A member of
Jones College, she graduated in 1978 with a bachelor's degree in anthropology, psychology and sociology. In 2005, Parker completed
Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government program for Senior Executives in State and Local Government as a
David Bohnett
David C. Bohnett (born April 2, 1956) is an American philanthropist and technology entrepreneur. He is the founder and chairman of the David Bohnett Foundation, a non-profit, grant-making organization devoted to improving society through social ...
LGBTQ Victory Institute Leadership Fellow.
Career
Prior to serving as an elected official, Parker worked in the oil and gas industry as a software analyst
for over 20 years, including 18 years at Mosbacher Energy. In addition, she co-owned Inklings Bookshop with business partner Pokey Anderson from the late 1980s until 1997 and served as president of the
Neartown Civic Association from 1995 to 1997.
In 1986 and 1987, she was president of the
Houston GLBT Political Caucus
The Houston LGBTQ+ Political Caucus (also officially known as the HLGBTQPC) is the South's oldest civil rights organization dedicated solely to the advancement of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights. It was founded in 1975, and is the ...
.
City Council
Parker ran unsuccessfully for City Council District C in 1991 and again in 1995, finishing third in the special election for At-Large position 4, the seat vacated by
Sheila Jackson Lee
Sheila Jackson Lee (born January 12, 1950) is an American lawyer and politician who is the U.S. representative for , having served since 1995. The district includes most of central Houston. She is a member of the Democratic Party, and serve ...
after her election to Congress.
In 1997, Parker prevailed in the runoff election for At-Large position 1 to become Houston's first openly gay elected official.
She was re-elected twice to the same seat in 1999 and 2001 without being forced to a run-off. As a councilmember, she was recognized as "Councilmember of the Year" by the Houston Police Officers Union and earned the "Distinguished Local Elected Official Award" from the Texas Recreational and Park Society.
City Controller
In 2003, Parker was elected City Controller.
She was re-elected in 2005 and 2007 unopposed. In addition, Parker also secured a seat for a controller's appointee on the Houston Municipal Pension System Board of Trustees, marking the first time the city's chief financial officer has had any involvement in the pension system."
Houston mayor
2009 election
In 2009, Parker announced her candidacy for the office of
Mayor of Houston
The following is a list of people who have served as mayor of the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.
Until 2015, the term of the mayor was two years. Beginning with the tenure of Bob Lanier, the city charter imposed term limits on offi ...
in a video posted online to her campaign website. She was endorsed by several organizations and campaigned on a platform of better city security and financial efficiency.
Other people who were in the running for mayor included Houston City Council Member
Peter Hoyt Brown
Peter Hoyt Brown (October 16, 1936 – December 12, 2017) was a politician who held office as an at-large council member in the city of Houston, Texas. Known locally as "Peter Brown," he was a candidate for the 2009 Houston mayoral race, to succ ...
and Harris County school board trustee
Roy Morales
Roy is a masculine given name and a family surname with varied origin.
In Anglo-Norman England, the name derived from the Norman ''roy'', meaning "king", while its Old French cognate, ''rey'' or ''roy'' (modern ''roi''), likewise gave rise t ...
; they were eliminated from the race on November 3, 2009. She entered the run-off election with the most votes to face former Houston City Attorney Gene Locke who garnered the second most votes. In the general election, the city's primary newspaper endorsed both Parker and Locke.
During the run-off election, Parker was endorsed by former rival Peter Hoyt Brown. The city's primary newspaper, the ''
Houston Chronicle
The ''Houston Chronicle'' is the largest daily newspaper in Houston, Texas, United States. , it is the third-largest newspaper by Sunday circulation in the United States, behind only ''The New York Times'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''. With i ...
'', endorsed Parker over Locke citing her experience. Parker was elected mayor on December 12, 2009, and assumed office on January 2, 2010. Houston became the
largest U.S. city ever to have an openly
gay
''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'.
While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late 1 ...
individual serve as mayor.
After the election, Parker declared that the top priorities of her administration would be improving transportation, balancing the city's budget, and selecting a new police chief.
2011 election
In the 2011 election, Parker won a second term as Houston's Mayor by defeating Fernando Herrera, Jack O'Connor, Dave Wilson, Kevin Simms, and Amanda Ulman without a runoff.
2013 election
In November 2013, Parker won a third term as Houston's Mayor by winning 57.22% of the vote, making a runoff unnecessary.
Parker was succeeded on January 2, 2016, by state legislator
Sylvester Turner
Sylvester Turner (born September 27, 1954) is an American attorney and politician who is serving as the 62nd mayor of Houston, Texas. A member of the Democratic Party, Turner was a member of the Texas House of Representatives from 1989 until 201 ...
, who became the city's second African American mayor.
Houston Equal Rights Ordinance
On May 28, 2014, the
Houston City Council
The Houston City Council is a city council for the city of Houston in the U.S. state of Texas.
Currently, there are sixteen members, 11 elected from council districts and five at-large. The members of the Council are elected every four years, w ...
passed the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance (HERO) which was authored by Parker,
by a vote of 11 to 6. Mayor Parker had certified that "there exists a public emergency requiring that this Ordinance be passed finally on the date of its introduction". On July 3, 2014, opponents of the ordinance submitted 50,000 signatures to the city to force the ordinance to a vote of the public.
The city announced that the opponents were 2,022 signatures short of the 17,269 needed to put the matter to a vote.
HERO opponents filed a lawsuit against Mayor Parker and the city on August 5, 2014.
[ In response, city attorneys defending the law filed subpoenas for sermons from local Christian pastors.] Attorneys for the pastors called the subpoenas retaliation against Christians for opposing the ordinance. Parker maintained that the attorneys who dealt with the lawsuit for the city were outside lawyers (i.e., not city employees) and that she and City Attorney David Feldman had been unaware of the subpoenas. After what some news organizations called a "firestorm" of criticism over the subpoenas (Parker said that she had been "vilified coast to coast"[), Parker directed the city's attorneys on October 29, 2014, to withdraw the subpoenas. After the subpoenas were withdrawn, local city pastors filed a civil rights lawsuit against Parker.] The ordinance was later overturned by Houston voters by a 61%-39% margin.
Recent career
After leaving the office of Mayor in 2016, she's been working for nonprofit organizations in Houston, including her role as Senior Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer for community development nonprofit BakerRipley. Since December 2017 Parker serves as CEO and President of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund and Leadership Institute. She is also a professor at the Doerr Institute for New Leaders at Rice University.
Parker currently serves on the board of directors of the Holocaust Museum Houston
The Holocaust Museum Houston is located in Houston's Museum District, in Texas. It is the fourth largest holocaust museum in the U.S. It was opened in 1996.
The Boniuk Center houses Holocaust Museum Houston's Education Department, including f ...
and Girls Inc. and the advisory boards of the Houston Zoo
The Houston Zoo is a zoological park located within Hermann Park in Houston, Texas, United States. The zoo houses over 6,000 animals from more than 600 species. It receives 2.1 million visitors each year and is the second most visited zoo i ...
, the Montrose Counseling Center, Bering Omega Community Services, and Trees for Houston. She is also involved in historic preservation efforts in Houston and received the “Good Brick Award” from the Greater Houston Preservation Alliance for her restoration of historic properties in the Old Sixth Ward.
Personal life
Parker and her wife, Kathy Hubbard, have been together since 1990. On January 16, 2014, Parker and Hubbard were married in Palm Springs, California. They have two adopted children together as well as a then-teenage boy that they offered a home and whom they consider their son and a god-daughter.
Parker resides in East Montrose (a neighborhood of Houston) as of 2002; she had lived there since around 1991.
Awards and honors
In June 2020, in honor of the 50th anniversary of the first LGBTQ Pride parade, '' Queerty'' named her among the fifty heroes “leading the nation toward equality, acceptance, and dignity for all people”.
Electoral history
2003
2005
2007
2009
2013
See also
* LGBT community of Houston
Houston has a large and diverse LGBT population and is home to the 4th largest gay pride parade in the nation. Houston has the largest LGBT population of any city in the state of Texas.
History
According to Ray Hill, a Montrose resident quoted ...
References
External links
Annise Parker article
in Ballotpedia
Annise Parker campaign website (archived)
* Parker, Annise and Madeline Appel
Mayor Annise Parker Oral History
, Houston Oral History Project, December 29, 2010.
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Parker, Annise
1956 births
20th-century American politicians
20th-century American women politicians
21st-century American politicians
21st-century American women politicians
Comptrollers in the United States
Houston City Council members
Lesbian politicians
LGBT people from Texas
LGBT rights activists from the United States
Living people
Mayors of Houston
Rice University alumni
Texas Democrats
Women mayors of places in Texas
LGBT culture in Houston
Women city councillors in Texas
21st-century LGBT people
LGBT mayors of places in the United States