David Keith Nelson (April 7, 1962 – June 11, 2024) was an American LGBT and gun rights activist. He founded or helped found several LGBTQ-related nonprofit organizations in Utah and helped direct others. His work with the Democratic Party encouraged many LGBTQ Utahns to serve as party leaders. His work as a legislative and executive lobbyist accomplished the adoption of several LGBTQ- and weapon-friendly state and local laws, rules, ordinances and policies, and the rejection of other legislation.
Personal Nelson was born in Salt Lake City as a member of the political Cannon family. He studied political science at the University of Utah from 1982 to 1984. He retired in 2001 from his professional career in marketing and public relations, to reside in Brigham City, Utah. He lived with disabilities, and was diagnosed in 2015 with Autism Spectrum Disorder. After his diagnosis was established, he dedicated his abilities to LGBTQ autism advocacy, and helped create the LGBTQ-Autism Utah organization in 2018 with the Utah Pride Center, its Utah Pride Festival and the University of Utah Health Autism Spectrum Disorder Clinic.
Although not a Muslim, Nelson identified as a Sayyid based on self-conducted genealogical research as of 2021, worked to build ties between LGBTQ and MENA organizations.
Nelson died June 11, 2024, from Lewy body dementia.
Activism career Nelson became active in politics 1982. Though he was most active during the 1990s in Utah, he helped to direct political groups in California and the District of Columbia.
His work reflected the ideals of Jeffersonian democracy including American republicanism, civic duty and equality of political opportunity. His LGBTQ and Second Amendment politics pursued limited government which upholds the natural rights of the people and the rights of the states.
He earned the attention of governmental and political leaders, and news reporters.
Nonpartisan work As a political leader, Nelson founded or helped found several LGBTQ-related nonpartisan political groups in Utah and helped direct others. His work as a public-policy lobbyist accomplished the adoption of several LGBTQ- and weapon-friendly state and local laws, rules, ordinances and policies, and the rejection of other legislation.
Organization Nelson founded the Military Law Task Force of Salt Lake City in 1982, and served as an administrative-law attorney from 1982 to 1983 for active-duty and veteran servicemembers.
He served from 1983 to 1984 as a vice president of the Lesbian and Gay Student Union at the University of Utah. He served in 2002 as a member of the board of advisers of the University of Utah Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Resource Center and as the co-chairman of its public-relations committee.
He helped found Gay Community Inc. in 1985, and served as a co-publisher of its Community Reporter newspaper. He served from 1986 to 1987 as a co-publisher of the Triangle Magazine news magazine, in 2004 as the sports editor of the Salt Lake Metro newspaper and in 2006 as a columnist of the QSaltLake newspaper.
He interviewed The Times of Harvey Milk gay filmmaker Rob Epstein and Before Stonewall lesbian filmmaker Greta Schiller in 1985 at the Sundance Film Festival. The interview was broadcast by KRCL Radio, and excerpts were published by the Community Reporter newspaper. He was a technical staffer for the Sundance Institute from 1983 to 1985 and for the festival from 1984 to 1986.
He helped found the Gay and Lesbian Community Council of Utah in 1986.
He served from 1986 to 1988 as the Utah field associate of the Washington-based Fairness Fund. The group was acquired in 1988 by the Washington-based Human Rights Campaign Fund Inc. (HRCF) as its field division. He served from 1987 to 1988 and from 1989 to 1991 as the HRCF Utah field director.
He organized LGBTQ Utahns from 1986 to 1987 and from 1990 to 1997 to attend the annual Utah Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust commemoration at the Utah Capitol rotunda. He produced and helped distribute fliers and replica pink triangle and black triangle concentration-camp badges to commemoration patrons.
He served from 1988 to 1989 as a member of the board of advisers of the San Jose, Calif.-based Bay Area Municipal Elections Committee.
He served from 1991 to 1997 as a guest public speaker at collegiate, community and LGBTQ groups in Utah including the University of Utah Hinckley Institute of Politics, Weber State University and the YWCA of Salt Lake City.
He organized the lobbying of the members of the U.S. congressional delegation from Utah in 1993 by their constituents at the March on Washington for Lesbian, Gay and Bi Equal Rights and Liberation.
He helped organize a protest of, and published a complaint to the Utah Judicial Conduct Commission against, Utah 3rd District Court Judge David S. Young in 1994 for reducing the sentence of David Nelson Thacker who was convicted of killing gay Salt Lake City businessman Douglas Koehler. He helped organize the "No on Young" campaign in 1996 against the retention election of Young who lost election in 2002—the first judge who lost election in the state.
He served in 1997 as a member of the board of directors of the Washington-based Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund Inc. and as the chairman of its public-relations committee.
He helped organize a memorial service and candlelight vigil in 1998 in Utah after the beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard.
He helped develop in 1998 a legal and political strategy for the repeal of the state sodomy law with the American Civil Liberties Union of Utah.
He founded GayVoteUtah.com in 2001 to offer the online voter registration of LGBTQ Utahns.
He founded Stonewall Shooting Sports of Utah in 2002 which became one of the largest LGBTQ firearm groups in the United States—the first such group in the state.
He founded the Utah Stonewall Hall of Fame in 2006 with more than 600 LGBTQ Utahns inducted.
Governance Nelson campaigned unsuccessfully in 1985 as an openly gay candidate for election to serve as a member of the Salt Lake City Council—the first such campaign in the city. He placed third among four primary-election candidates when his campaign received 320 (9 percent) of the votes cast.
He served from 1994 to 1995 as an openly gay member of a federal Social Services Block Grant allocation panel for the Salt Lake County Human Services Advisory Council.
He received nominations from 11 Utah elected public officials and citizens in 1995 for appointment to serve as an openly gay member of the advisory board of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games of 2002.
He served from 1997 to 2001 as an openly gay member of the Hate Crimes Working Group for the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Attorney for the District of Utah, and helped produce the "Changing Face of Hate: A National Symposium" conference in 1999 that was sponsored by the U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, Weber State University and the Utah Task Force on Racial and Ethnic Fairness in the Legal System.
Opportunity Nelson lobbied unsuccessfully in 1993 for the repeal of a Salt Lake Tribune policy which prohibited the publication of same-sex personal advertisements.
Policy Nelson wrote and lobbied unsuccessfully from 1986 to 1987 for the adoption of a Salt Lake City Council bill which would have created a city human-rights commission and prohibited discrimination including that based on sexual orientation—the first such proposal in Utah.
He lobbied successfully from 1986 to 1987 for the adoption of a Salt Lake City Police Department policy which requires LGBTQ sensitivity training for department officers—the first such policy in Utah.
He lobbied successfully in 1990 against the Utah State Office of Education recommendation that the local exhibitors of The World of Anne Frank redact educational information about the homosexual victims of the Holocaust. He produced and helped distribute fliers and replica pink triangle concentration-camp badges to exhibit-premiere patrons.
He helped write and lobbied successfully in 1991 and 1992 for the adoption of two Utah Legislature bills which prohibit and study hate crimes—the first such laws in the state. He lobbied unsuccessfully from 1992 to 1999 for the adoption of various bills which would have improved the laws.
He wrote and lobbied successfully in 1992 for the adoption of a Salt Lake County Board of Commissioners bill which prohibits discrimination in county-government employment and services including that based on sexual orientation—the first such law in Utah. He lobbied successfully in 1995 against the repeal of the law's "marital status" and "sexual orientation" protections. Leaders of the county Gay and Lesbian Employee Association were critical of him and others who opposed the repeal, and said that he "did not speak for GLEA."
He lobbied unsuccessfully in 1992 against the appointment of controversial former Phoenix Police Chief Ruben Ortega to serve as the chief of the Salt Lake City Police Department.
He lobbied unsuccessfully from 1992 to 1993 for the adoption of a Utah State Textbook Commission administrative rule which would have allowed public schools to use textbooks which included information about homosexuality.
He helped write and lobbied successfully in 1993 for the adoption of a Utah Legislature bill which provides for viatical settlements which allow individuals who are terminally ill to sell their life-insurance policies before death to pay health-care expenses, and to improve their quality of life.
He lobbied successfully in 1993 and 1994 against the adoption of two Utah Legislature bills which would have required HIV testing of individuals who significantly exposed other individuals including public-safety officers or emergency-medical service providers to HIV during the performance of their duties. The bills didn't protect medical privacy. He lobbied successfully in 1995 for the amendment of a similar bill to protect such privacy, and the bill was adopted.
He served from 1993 to 2003 as a licensed Utah legislative and executive lobbyist for LGBTQ public-policy development.
He lobbied successfully in 1994 for the amendment of a Utah Legislature bill which would have required DNA profiling of individuals convicted of violating certain state laws including the state sodomy law. The amendment removed the profiling of individuals convicted of violating the sodomy law, and the bill was adopted.
He lobbied unsuccessfully in 1995 against the adoption of a Utah Legislature bill which prohibits the recognition of same-sex marriages. He was later sentenced by a Midvale Justice Court judge to pay a $50 fine and to serve a suspended six-day jail term for committing an act of civil disobedience in protest of the law. He lobbied unsuccessfully in 1996 against the adoption of a Utah Legislature bill which restricted LGBT-student clubs at public schools.
He lobbied successfully in 1998 against the adoption of a Utah Office of the Attorney General amicus curiae brief which would have opposed same-sex marriage in the Vermont Supreme Court case of
He lobbied unsuccessfully in 2007 for a Utah Legislature bill which would have amended the state sodomy law by removing the provisions that the U.S. Supreme Court determined in 2003 to be unconstitutional in its opinion about The bill wasn't considered.
He lobbied successfully in 2007 to amend a Utah Legislature bill which would have prohibited the possession of a concealed firearm at state institutions of higher education, and allows a dormitory resident to request only roommates who aren't permitted to carry concealed firearms. The amendment removed the prohibition, and the bill was adopted.