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'''David Fair''' (born April 27, 1952) is an American activist who has been a leader in the labor,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/|title=Newspapers.com search|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> [[LGBT]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/|title=Newspapers.com search|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> [[AIDS]],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/|title=Newspapers.com search|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> [[homeless]]<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/search/|title=Newspapers.com search|website=Newspapers.com}}</ref> and [[child advocacy]] movements in Philadelphia, PA since the 1970s. He has founded or co-founded several advocacy and service organizations, including the Philadelphia Lesbian and Gay Task Force<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dparchives.library.upenn.edu/?a=d&d=tdp19790306-01.2.16&srpos=1&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22David+Fair%22+%22Lesbian+and+gay+task+force%22------|title=Daily Pennsylvanian |website=dparchives.library.upenn.edu}}</ref> (1977), the Philadelphia Gay Cultural Festival<ref>{{cite web|url=https://dparchives.library.upenn.edu/?a=d&d=tdp19790309-01.2.9&srpos=14&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-%22David+Fair%22------|title=Daily Pennsylvanian |website=dparchives.library.upenn.edu}}</ref> (1978), Lavender Health (1979) (now [[Mazzoni Center]]), the [[National Union of the Homeless|Philadelphia/Delaware Valley Union of the Homeless]] (1985), Philly Homes 4 Youth (2017), and the Philadelphia Coalition on Opioids and Children (2018), and led the creation of numerous local government health and human service initiatives, including the [[AIDS Activities Coordinating Office]] for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health (1987) and the Division of Community-Based Prevention Services (2001), the Parenting Collaborative (2003), and the Quality Parenting Initiative (2014) for the Philadelphia Department of Human Services.
 
Fair has received over 50 community service awards from various Philadelphia agencies and organizations, among them the Philadelphia Inquirer's Citizen Award,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/581456933/?terms=%22david%20fair%22%20%22citizen%20award%22&match=1|title=23 Jun 2019, Page E9 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com}}</ref>, the City of Philadelphia Human Rights Award,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/175261928/?terms=%22david+r.+fair%22|title=24 Sep 1991, Page 20 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com}}</ref>, and the Philadelphia Gay News Legacy Award.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://epgn.com/2023/05/25/david-fair-to-receive-legacy-award-at-pgn-pride-brunch/ |title=David Fair to receive legacy award at PGN Pride Brunch |date=25 May 2023 }}</ref> He was also named among the top 101 Connectors<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/199905146/?terms=david+fair|title=15 Oct 2006, Page E03 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com}}</ref> in Philadelphia by Leadership Philadelphia, and has served on over 80 local boards and committees since 1977.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/199285391/?terms=%22david+r.+fair%22|title=14 May 2007, Page E04 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com}}</ref>
 
== Early life ==
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The city's largest social services union at the time, 1199C also became a base for Fair to build bridges between the union's largely black membership and LGBT and AIDS activism. In 1980–82, he and Wilds formed Gay Campaign 80 and the Philadelphia Equal Rights Coalition, successful efforts to elect LGBT people to various neighborhood party posts in the city. The organizing efforts garnered the attention of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which published an article on the growing influence of LGBT political activism in the city featuring Wilds and Fair.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/184528456/?terms=%22david+fair%22+gay|title=23 Apr 1984, Page 4 - Philadelphia Daily News at Newspapers.com}}</ref>
 
The union hall became a major meeting place for LGBT and progressive organizations, and Fair took advantage of his new connections in the black political networks in which 1199C was prominent to influence black elected officials on LGBT issues. These connections and other organizing efforts<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/184528456/?terms=%22david+fair%22|title=23 Apr 1984, Page 4 - Philadelphia Daily News at Newspapers.com}}</ref> by Fair, Wilds, Lisa Bacon, Rita Addessa (head of PLGTF),<ref>{{cite web|url=https://davidwebber.substack.com/p/rita-addessa-a-tribute
}}</ref>, Doug Bowman and many others were instrumental in the passage of a 1982 amendment<ref>{{cite web|url=http://philadelphiaencyclopedia.org/archive/civil-rights-lgbt/philadelphia-gay-rights-bill-3/|title=Philadelphia Gay Rights Bill, 1982 - Encyclopedia of Greater Philadelphia|website=philadelphiaencyclopedia.org}}</ref> to the Philadelphia Fair Practices Act prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. The Union, which itself had a large black LGBT membership, also became the base of Gay and Lesbian Friends of Wilson Goode, chaired by Fair. Goode was elected Philadelphia's [[Wilson Goode|first black mayor]] in 1983
 
In 1984, Goode appointed Fair to form the city's first Mayor's Commission on Sexual Minorities.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/184506991/?terms=%22david+fair%22+gay|title=3 Mar 1984, Page 8 - Philadelphia Daily News at Newspapers.com}}</ref> Also that year, Fair began years of anti-racist activism<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/186084252/?terms=%22david+fair%22|title=3 Oct 1986, Page 5 - Philadelphia Daily News at Newspapers.com}}</ref> within the [[LGBT community]] with a speech to the annual dinner of Black and White Men Together Philadelphia, a local multiracial LGBT group which was honoring Fair with a community service award. In that speech,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:BWMT_Speech_1984.pdf|title=BWMT Speech|date=12 March 1984 }}</ref> Fair decried the dominance of racist attitudes in the local white gay community, using as a prime example the closing of the only LGBT mental health agency in the city once it began to serve a predominately people of color clientele.
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In 2003, Fair was approached by several advocates for fathers involved in the child welfare system, with complaints that the system was insufficiently supportive of fathers. In response, Fair created a funding stream specifically dedicated to helping fathers of children in foster care, helping them improve their parenting skills and also connect to job training and other services they needed to provide for their children. Fair remains active in this area of work, helping to create several father advocacy efforts, including in 2023 [https://stoneleighfoundation.org/establishing-the-pennsylvania-advisory-committee-on-greater-father-involvement/ a special commission] of the PA General Assembly on "greater father family involvement." The Commission is charged with developing a series of recommendations to the state legislature on how state agencies can be more supportive of fathers engaged with public systems.
 
Fair left DHS in 2005 to become Senior Vice President for Community Impact at [[United Way]] of Southeastern Pennsylvania],<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/201177944/?terms=david+fair|title=19 Dec 2005, Page D02 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com}}</ref> where he revitalized its 85-year-old funding strategy to emphasize only organizations “achieving measurable results” focused on the Agenda for Community Solutions, a community investment strategy prioritizing a "return on social investment."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/199422953/?terms=%22david+fair%22|title=16 Oct 2008, Page A04 - The Philadelphia Inquirer at Newspapers.com}}</ref> While at United Way, Fair played a major role in the establishment of Graduate! Philadelphia, an initiative to help people with some college credits return to get their degree.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.graduatephiladelphia.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/10-1.pdf|title=Graduate! Philadelphia Media Release}}</ref> The Graduate Network has grown to over 30 sites throughout the United States. Under the leadership of then-UWSEPA president Alba Martinez and Fair the regional United Way increased its annual fundraising from $49 million to $54 million in just three years.
 
In 2007, Fair began publishing an online weekly newsletter for United Way called "What Matters," which highlighted news and events of interest to the Philadelphia-area nonprofit 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 [http://commongood.unitedforimpact.org Common Good]. Fair remains the editor of the now monthly online publication.
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