SAN ANTONIO — One of the city’s newest council members holds a history-making title. Jalen McKee Rodriguez is not only the first openly gay man who’s served on city council, but he’s also the first openly gay and Black man to hold any office in Texas’ history. 

His first title, though, was teacher. The last time he stepped foot on his old campus, Sam Houston High School on San Antonio’s East Side, was back in 2019. 

“I taught math, I was teaching Algebra 1. So, if you walked in that way, and then all the way down and to the right, that was my classroom,” said McKee Rodriguez. 

His platform as a teacher was to foster acceptance. When McKee Rodriguez told his family he was a gay as a teenager, his family embraced him. He knows others don’t have the same experience. 

“I was often the first teacher that a student would come out to as say trans or gender non-conforming or gay. Or just confused,” said McKee Rodriguez.

He said his family instilled openness in him, something he said may have come from seeing the country as a military kid.

“You know, we moved around from place to place: Las Vegas, Hawaii, Kentucky,” said Mckee Rodriguez. 

Eventually, the military brought his family to San Antonio. He said he felt so accepted, he decided to call it home. 

And then, he decided to run for office. 

“We are all screaming. We were screaming and we felt so relieved, everything kind of, um, everything stopped for little bit.” said McKee Rodriguez, recalling his win. 

His election night victory means more than the title of councilman. McKee Rodriguez is the first openly gay and Black man to hold any office in Texas’ history. It’s with that title that he says he’ll carry on the same mission he had in the classroom.

“What I always say is that as a teacher, I got to prepare my students for the world as it exists now. And now that I’m councilman, now that I’m elected, I can prepare the world for my students,” said McKee Rodriguez.