Annise Parker

Annise Parker (born May 17, 1956, Houston, Texas, U.S.) is an American politician who served as mayor of Houston (2010–16). At the time of her election, Houston, then America’s fourth largest city, became the country’s largest city to elect an openly gay mayor.

Parker lived in Houston until age 15, when her father’s work with the Red Cross took the family to a U.S. Army base in Mannheim, West Germany. While there she also worked with the Red Cross, volunteering with its youth service branch. She attended Rice University in Houston on a National Merit Scholarship, graduating in 1978 with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology, sociology, and psychology. Over the next 20 years Parker worked in the oil and gas industry, primarily as a software engineer at Houston’s Mosbacher Energy. She also was the co-owner of a bookstore and of an income tax preparation service.

Following two unsuccessful runs for a Houston City Council seat, Parker was victorious on her third try, in 1997. In her six years on the council, she worked to strengthen inner-city development and to expand funding for the arts. In 2003 she was elected city controller, the number-two position in Houston’s local government, and, running unopposed, she was reelected in 2005 and 2007. As controller she was instrumental in passing a proposition that strengthened that office; she also served on a committee that oversaw an independent investigation of Houston’s crime lab. In addition to her political duties, Parker served on the boards of several civic organizations, including the Houston Zoo and the city’s Holocaust museum.

In 2009 she entered Houston’s mayoral race as a Democratic candidate. Parker, who had been open about her sexuality since entering public life, became the target of anti-gay rhetoric during the election campaign, yet more than three-fourths of those surveyed in a poll conducted by the Houston Chronicle and Zogby International one week before the runoff election indicated that her sexual orientation would have no effect on their vote. Parker won the December 12 election, capturing 53 percent of the vote, and took office on January 2, 2010.