David Fair

David Fair (born April 27, 1952) is an American LGBTQ rights activist and public administrator, based in Philadelphia.

Fair was born in Southwest Philadelphia and attended a Catholic school.^[1] He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania in 1970, where he first became politically active, and voiced support for the impeachment of President Richard Nixon.^[2] During this period, he also founded and chaired the Penn Voters' Rights Council.^[3]

He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1975 with a degree in political science.^[4]

In 1971, Fair won a federal lawsuit (Fair v. Osser, C.A. No. 71-2212),^[5] which established that Pennsylvania students have the right to register to vote using their campus addresses.

In 1976, Fair publicly identified as gay for the first time at a meeting at the Gay Community Center of Philadelphia.^[6] He later became involved with several local LGBTQ organizations, such as Gays at Penn (GAP).^[7] In 1977, members of GAP took part in advocacy that contributed to the University of Pennsylvania adopting a sexual-orientation non-discrimination policy.

In 1978, Fair helped organize the Philadelphia Gay Cultural Festival (PLGTF), the first gay and lesbian cultural festival held outside New York State and California. The following year, he helped establish an LGBT health committee within the PLGTF.^[8] The committee later became the non-profit Lavender Health which would later become the Mazzoni Center, renamed in honor of physician Peter Mazzoni.

Along with fellow LGBTQ Democratic Party activist Scott Wilds and others,^[9] Fair formed an unsuccessful 1979 mayoral campaign committee to support pro-LGBTQ City Councilman Lucien Blackwell. He was hired by local labor leader Henry Nicholas, president of the local affiliate of 1199: The National Health Care Workers' Union (1199C), as his executive assistant in 1980. In 1985, Fair was elected the Union's first openly gay officer, Secretary-Treasurer, and as a Vice President of the Union's national organization. Between 1980 and 1988, Fair worked for the healthcare workers’ union 1199C, where he held elected office and served as a spokesperson. During this period, he was involved in labor organizing, housing advocacy, gay pride barbecues and LGBTQ political organizing in Philadelphia.

In the mid-1980s, Fair became involved in local responses to the HIV/AIDS epidemic, working with community organizations and municipal agencies.

During the early years of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, Fair encouraged then Mayor of Philadelphia Wilson Goode to create the Mayor's Commission on Health Emergencies, the first effort in the city government to create a local response to the AIDS epidemic. That same year, Fair gave the fledgling AIDS prevention organization Blacks Educating Blacks About Sexual Health Issues (BEBASHI) its first office space.^[10]

In 1986, Fair authored AIDS and Minorities in Philadelphia: A Crisis Ignored^[11] for BEBASHI and began participating in the organizing of African American and Latino LGBTQ people to combat the epidemic in their own communities.^[12] At the 1986 national convention of the National Association of Black and White Men Together, Fair gave the keynote speech on white gay racism, which was later published in Speaking for Our Lives: Historic Speeches and Rhetoric for Gay and Lesbian Rights 1892-2000. From that point until the mid-1990s, Fair contributed to anti-racism efforts in the LGBT and HIV/AIDS communities in Philadelphia.^[13]

In November 1987, Philadelphia Mayor Goode asked Fair to form the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office.^[14] Goode provided Fair with a $6 million ($17.2 million in 2026 dollars) allocation of unrestricted city funds, leading to the creation of a network of HIV-related services. Shortly after his appointment, Fair presented a speech to the Neighborhood Summit on AIDS, calling for a recognition that defeating AIDS meant organizing neighborhoods to combat HIV infection among groups including gay people of color, those fighting addiction, women, and others who had historically been ignored by AIDS organizations.

Fair left the AIDS office in 1990,^[15] to lead the city's only advocacy organization composed of people living with HIV, called We The People Living with AIDS/HIV of the Delaware Valley.^[16]

In 1991, Fair was arrested and injured by Philadelphia police at an ACT-UP demonstration against President George H.W. Bush.^[17] As a result of a lawsuit filed against the Philadelphia Police Department, Fair received a settlement of $3,000 ($7164.14 in 2026 dollars).

In 1994, Fair led a 17-day hunger strike with nine others to demand that the state of Pennsylvania maintain funding for the only nursing facility for people with AIDS, Betak,^[18] a successful campaign that kept the home open for several more years.

In 2007, Fair began publishing an online weekly newsletter for United Way called "What Matters," covering news and events of interest to the Philadelphia-area non-profit community. By 2010, the newsletter had over 15,000 subscribers. After mergers resulted in the new United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey in 2012, the name of the newsletter was changed to "Common Good".^[19] Fair remains the editor of the now-monthly online publication.

He is also a founder of Philly Homes 4 Youth, the Quality Parenting Initiative, and the Philadelphia Coalition on Opioids and Children.

Fair founded and led a wide range of nonprofit organizations and public initiatives focused on LGBTQ rights, public health, housing, and family services in Philadelphia, including:

In the late 1970s, Fair helped establish several LGBTQ advocacy initiatives in Philadelphia, including the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force.[ Force^[20]. Then in 1978, he founded the Philadelphia Gay Cultural Festival.^[21] Later, in 1985, he founded the Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Union of the Homeless and became a spokesman.^[22]. In 1987, he led the creation of the AIDS Activities Coordinating Office for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health.. Similarly, in the 2000s, he led the creation of the Division of Community-Based Prevention Services for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health, the Parenting Collaborative for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services, and the creation of the Quality Parenting Initiative for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services. In 2017, he founded Philly Homes 4 Youth.

In 1989–1990, Fair's work was recognized by the AIDS in the Barrio Conference, the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations, the Philadelphia Fellowship Commission, Unity/Philadelphia, Dignity/Philadelphia, the Philadelphia City Council, and the Mayor’s Office.

His video Epidemic: The AIDS Emergency in Philadelphia^[23] received the Communicator of the Year Award from the Public Relations Society of Southeastern Pennsylvania and a CINE Award for Video Excellence.

Fair was inducted into the Philadelphia LGBTQ+ Hall of Fame in 2024.^[24] In 2025, Fair’s activism was featured in the third series of HBO Max’s Eyes on the Prize, which examined efforts to address the AIDS epidemic in communities of color during the late 1980s. Fair was also recognized at an advance screening of the episode at the Schomburg Center in New York City.

He has also received the Philadelphia Inquirer Citizen Award,^[25] the City of Philadelphia Human Rights Award,^[26] and the Philadelphia Gay News Legacy Award.^[27]

• The Guerrilla Bureaucrat, Philadelphia Inquirer
• Six honored for HIV/AIDS work at Red Ribbon Awards, Philadelphia Gay News
• No longer dying for meds, but dying for housing, Philadelphia Tribune
• WHYY LGBT documentary comes at exactly the right time, Daily Local News
• Philadelphia Coalition on Opioids and Children Archived 2020-08-09 at the Wayback Machine
• Philly Homes 4 Youth
• Project U-Turn Archived 2020-05-13 at the Wayback Machine