Tony Snell Rodriguez didn’t grow up in Milwaukee, but he’s made a mark on our city–literally. And quite colorfully. He was the engine behind the rainbows that grace the crosswalks at a downtown intersection, a celebration of LGBTQ pride, in 2018. As the vice chair of the Milwaukee Equal Rights Commission and a Milwaukee LBGT Community Center board member, he was able to advocate for the crosswalks, which are close to the historic gay bar This Is It and Cathedral Square, the end point of the city’s first gay pride parade in 1989. He’s also advocated for gender-neutral bathrooms in city buildings through the commission, and is a member of the city’s Tobacco-Free Alliance. Tony, the son of a Spanish mother and an American military father, grew up in South Carolina. He was vocally anti-gay and Republican in his college years, before coming out. His story is a chapter in the book “Southern Perspectives on the Queer Movement,” a collection of stories edited by Sheila R. Morris (University of South Carolina, 2017). Eventually he rose to become president of South Carolina Pride and played a key role in LGBTQ political organizing in the South. He’s steeped in politics here too. Today he is the senior director for volunteer management with the DNC Host Committee.