Glen Maxey (born February 23, 1952) is an American politician from Austin, Texas, who was the first openly gay member of the Texas Legislature. Active in the fight for gay rights, Maxey was a central figure in the establishment of facilities for the education and care of HIV-infected individuals, especially the AIDS Services of Austin (ASA). In 2008, he was an unsuccessful candidate for Tax Assessor-Collector in Travis County, Texas. Early life and education Maxey is the son of Byron Hale Maxey and Mary Ursula Ocker. His family ran a traveling rodeo. Maxey was educated at Sam Houston State University. He holds a Bachelor of Science Degree and Master of Education degree from Sam Houston State University. Maxey taught fifth grade and worked as a reading and math specialist working with migrant students in Navasota, Texas. Political involvement and activism Maxey first entered politics in 1968 as a volunteer on the Texas Democratic Primary campaign of Senator Eugene McCarthy. While teaching school, Maxey continued to volunteer for local, state and federal campaigns. In 1980, while teaching in Navasota, Maxey joined the successful campaign of Kent Caperton, a candidate for the Texas State Senate. Caperton, a young Bryan attorney who was seeking to unseat the legendary "Bull of the Brazos," William T. "Bill" Moore. Moore had held the Senate seat centered around Bryan for thirty-two years before Caperton defeated him in the Democratic primary that year. After the election, Maxey joined Caperton's staff in 1981 as a legislative aide. The following year, Maxey ran for an open House seat in College Station against House Appropriations Committee Chairman Bill Presnal in the Democratic primary, and later joined the campaign of Jim Hightower, who was then a candidate for Texas Agriculture Commissioner. In November 1982, Maxey joined the staff of Democratic State Senator Oscar Mauzy, who was Dean of the Texas Senate at the time, and became his Chief Legislative Aide. While on Mauzy's staff, Maxey was active in HIV/AIDS activism, and urged Mauzy to become involved in the case of a man suffering from HIV who had been threatened with quarantine by the Texas Board of Health. In 2001, Maxey discussed this watershed moment in HIV and AIDS awareness in an interview with the Austin Chronicle: As Maxey recalls the episode, "It was very early in the AIDS crisis, the disease wasn't very well understood, and the commissioner of health began talking