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Michael S. Hinson Jr. (1966-2022) was an American Black and LGBTQ activist, educator, and researcher who lived in Philadelphia, PA, and was the Chief Executive Officer of SELF, Inc.

Life and works
Michael Hinson grew up in Wilmington, Delaware and Hemingway, South Carolina and  graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Legal Studies from Peirce College and a Masters in Public Administration from Cheyney University of Pennsylvania. At the time of his passing in 2022, he was completing a Doctor of Public Administration at Capella University.

He was a founder and director of the Colours Organization in Philadelphia from 1991–2000, where he developed innovative programs addressing the broader health needs of Black  LGBTQ people.

In 2000, Philadelphia Mayor John F. Street appointed Hinson as his liaison to the city's LGBTQ+ communities and also as a policy advisor on issues ranging from child welfare to education to homelessness to public safety. During that time, Hinson's accomplishments included helping to develop a comprehensive plan to combat homelessness in Philadelphia; helping to build a coalition to ensure that gender identity was added to the protections of the city’s Fair Practices Ordinance; procuring funding to help ensure the health of several LGBTQ+ organizations; facilitated the process for rainbow flags to be added to the bottom of street signs in the Philadelphia "gayborhood"; helping to secure funding for Philadelphia to host the US Conference on AIDS; and obtaining funding from the Department of Public Health for the first transgender health clinic in Philadelphia, located at the Mazzoni Center.

In addition to the founding of Colours, he also played a pivotal role for many organizations in the city, lending his energy and talents to help strengthen the LGBTQ service infrastructure in Philadelphia. As part of this work, he helped found Philly Black Gay Pride in 1999 and was one of seven founders of the Black Gay Men’s Leadership Council founded in 2006. He was also an integral member of the grass roots, community-based organization Black and Latinx Community Control of Health.

In 2005, in his role as LGBTQ+ liaison in the Street Administration, Hinson funded the LGBT Community Assessment, an assessment of the broad health related needs of LGBT populations in the Philadelphia region, and worked closely with community researchers Chris Bartlett and Heather Batson to complete the research. Through his leadership, the City of Philadelphia and Philadelphia Foundation subsequently funded an LGBT Youth Assessment, which he also envisioned and funded.

After leaving the Street administration, Hinson eventually began working as a leader nationally in Black and LGBTQ+ community organizing. Michael was one of the founders of the International Federation of Black Prides (now Center for Black Equity) and served as the Board Chair from 1999-2010. He was the IFBP/CBE Director of Programs from 2010-2018. In these roles, he helped increase IFBP/CBE membership from eight Black Prides to thirty-two Black Prides around the globe. Additionally, he invested in Black leaders nationally and internationally, bringing effective strategies he had implemented in Philadelphia to many other communities. During the final leg of his career, Hinson turned his focus back to addressing homelessness in Philadelphia, an area that was part of his work during the Street administration. Hinson was a passionate advocate for people experiencing homelessness. From 2017 until his death in 2022, Hinson he served as the President and CEO of SELF, Inc., the city’s largest provider of emergency and transitional housing, which doubled in size under his leadership and included the development of Way Home, a partnership with the William Way LGBT Community Center that provides rental assistance for LGBTQ+ people. In a June 2022 interview with the Philadelphia Gay News, which was honoring him with a Lifetime Achievement Award, Hinson talked about the work he was doing at SELF, Inc. and the importance of permanent housing. “That’s the solution for so many things,” he said, “health care, education, and employment are all things that are difficult to maintain without permanent housing. We fight every minute of every chance we get to fight for Black & Brown and LGBTQ people who continually bear the brunt of the discrimination that leads to housing issues.”

SELF, Inc. Board Chair and former Philadelphia Mayor, W. Wilson Goode said, “Mike was a soldier and leader for righteousness, in the truest sense. A champion for marginalized communities, and a selfless public servant for many causes. Mike’s empowering voice and action helped elevate the work of SELF in the public policy leadership space — all while keeping the dignity and respect of people first. We grieve Mike’s passing, but we are better human beings because we shared his presence. We will miss his leadership, but he has left a legacy of passionate advocacy for us to share and follow.”

Throughout his career, Hinson worked very closely with the three people he identified as his strongest mentors: David Fair, Tyrone Smith,  and Rashidah Abdul-Khabeer. He built upon their commitments to insure the unapologetic centering of the voices of Black and Brown, LGBTQ, and other communities who benefited from his strong voice.

Hinson said in a 2018 Philadelphia Magazine interview “Even on the days when the weight of the challenges seems insurmountable and the loneliness of the roads traveled seems endless, I am forever grateful for the opportunities and platforms available to me to contribute in a small way to the humanity I know we all deserve.”