Ray Hill (activist)

Ray Hill
Born	1940 (age 76–77)
Education	Galena Park High School
Occupation	Gay rights activist, prison reform activist, actor, and radio host

Ray Hill (born 1940) is an activist from Houston, Texas. He has been an activist for LGBT issues, police and law enforcement issues, and prison issues. He is also the subject of multiple documentary films, and an ex-convict.

Ray Hill was born in 1940 at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Houston Heights. Hill had two sisters. Both of Hill's parents were labor organizers, his father with AFL/CIO and his mother with Teamsters, which Hill says is what started his fervent interest in civil rights. Hill was a Baptist child evangelist from age 13 to 17.

Hill attended Galena Park High School in Houston, where he played football. Hill came out to his family in 1958 while he was still in high school. His mother told him that she was "relieved" that he was gay, because she and her father had thought that possibly he was a Republican. From age 18 Hill was involved in activism, and for a while served as the secretary for the NAACP chapter in Houston.

Hill has attended Stephen F. Austin State University, University of Houston, and Tulane University, but did not graduate from any of these universities.

Hill was sentenced to 120 years in prison for tax evasion in 1971, but on appeal his sentence was shortened to eight years. Hill was imprisoned in the Ramsey Unit, where he worked as a maintenance bookkeeper. Hill was released from prison in 1975 for good behavior.

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