Glen Maxey, a former state representative, stands at a booth during the Texas Democratic Convention at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi on Friday, June 26, 2026.
Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News
CORPUS CHRISTI — Glen Maxey remembers when members of the Texas House, many of them from his own party, would not so much as shake his hand even though he was a duly elected state representative.
The year was 1991, and at 41 he had already had nearly two decades of experience as a Democratic organizer. He had been a legislative staff member and a public policy advocate. He was also openly gay at a time when fears surrounding AIDS had further marginalized his community.
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But most of all, Maxey was undaunted. Through more than a little persistence and a refusal to let grudges stand in the way of progress, he helped colleagues navigate the countless obstacles that often derail legislation under the Capitol dome. Maxey was Texas’ first openly gay elected official to serve at that level. But he wouldn’t be the last.
LGBTQ+ rights were not among the planks in his party’s platform. But before he retired from the House after six terms, they would be. And they remain so.
“The world has finally caught up with Glen Maxey,” the still-active 74-year-old Democratic activist said in an interview while staffing a booth at the party’s state convention on Friday.
Maxey came of age in an era when his party could take victory in statewide elections for granted. But not the candidates he backed. In 1972, he was a young staffer in the upstart gubernatorial campaign of Sissy Farenthold, a reform-minded state representative. She lost the nomination to the establishment-backed Dolph Briscoe, a Uvalde rancher and part of the conservative faction of the Texas Democratic Party. Four years earlier, while in his teens, he volunteered for Eugene McCarthy, who challenged President Lyndon Johnson before the Texan ended his bid for reelection.
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Maxey, who later represented part of Austin in the House, was born into a rodeo family and graduated from Sam Houston State University in the conservative East Texas city of Huntsville. He taught elementary school in equally conservative Navasota.
Glen Maxey, a former state representative, takes a photo with Melissa Laurent during the Texas Democratic Convention at the Hilliard Center in Corpus Christi on Friday, June 26, 2026.
Katina Zentz/San Antonio Express-News
“I was not openly out in those days,” he said with a smile in front of his booth selling campaign swag in the exhibit hall of the Hilliard Convention Center overlooking Corpus Christi Bay.
After he settled into his service in the Texas House, Maxey became one of the chamber’s inside power players. He was part of the coalition that elected conservative Democrat Pete Laney speaker. Maxey would cosponsor bills with Republicans, which helped give those members permission to vote in favor of bills important to him.
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Maxey left the House after the 2002 election cycle, just as Republicans cemented their domination of Texas politics. In the two decades since, Maxey had grown used to going to bed disappointed on election nights every two years, at least in statewide races. But this election cycle, Maxey said he’s allowing himself to dream that his party’s long sojourn through the Texas wilderness might come to an end.
“It’s the best vibe I’ve ever seen,” Maxey said as throngs of people passed by his booth and dozens of others representing causes from support for small businesses and organized labor to expanded LGBTQ+ rights, which the community has seen rolled back by Republicans.
Maxey was wearing a T-shirt promoting state Rep. James Talarico’s candidacy for U.S. Senate. The letters featured the colors of the rainbow. Maxey said he had first met Talarico when he was 18, roughly the same age as Maxey was when he was cutting his political teeth.
“He’s brilliant,” Maxey said. “He speaks his values with conviction.”
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State Rep. Jessica Gonzalez, a Dallas Democrat who chairs the House LGBTQ+ Caucus, said her road to the Legislature was paved by the dogged efforts of Maxey.
“He’s a trailblazer,” Gonzalez said.