Arlington’s First Openly LGBTQ Elected Official
In 1997, Jay Fisette became the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to office in the state of Virginia when he won a seat on the Arlington County Board.
In 1997, Jay Fisette became the first openly LGBTQ+ person elected to office in Virginia when he won the Arlington County Board seat.
Fisette served for six terms on the Board, from 1998 to 2017, and served as Board Chair five times, including in his final year.
Fisette focused on numerous issues during his tenure, including strong environmental policies, local affordable housing, and urban planning. He also has held leadership positions in organizations such as the Metropolitan Council of Governments, the Virginia Housing Development Authority, and the Arlington Gay and Lesbian Alliance.
In his work with the Alliance, founded in 1981 as a local branch of the Virginia Gay Alliance, the group successfully advocated for the inclusion of sexual orientation protections in the County’s human rights ordinance.
Before being elected to the Board, Fisette worked as a Government Accountability Office auditor and as director of the Whitman-Walker Clinic of Northern Virginia, which focuses on helping patients with HIV/AIDS.
Reflecting on his career in Arlington, Fisette said in an announcement stating he would not run for re-election that the County “embraced me as a gay man long before such an endorsement could be presumed, long before it became the norm.”
