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David Hylan is a writer, filmmaker, activist, and retired nonprofit executive whose work has focused on social justice, LGBTQ+ rights, HIV/AIDS advocacy, and community empowerment for more than four decades.
Born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Hylan came of age in the Deep South during a period when being openly gay often carried significant personal and professional risk. His experiences living through the AIDS crisis and witnessing the struggles of LGBTQ+ people in Louisiana shaped a lifelong commitment to advocacy, storytelling, and preserving history that might otherwise be forgotten.
For over forty years, Hylan worked at Deaf Action Center in Shreveport, helping build programs and services that expanded opportunities and accessibility for Deaf and hard-of-hearing individuals throughout the region. During that time, he raised his family, built lasting friendships, and developed a deep appreciation for the power of community action and collective leadership.
Hylan is the co-director and co-producer of the award-winning documentary Small Town Rage: Fighting Back in the Deep South, narrated by Lance Bass. The film chronicles the emergence of AIDS activism and LGBTQ+ advocacy in Northwest Louisiana during the 1980s and 1990s. It received the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Film of the Year Award and the Gittings International Human Rights Award for its preservation of a largely untold chapter of Southern history.
His book, Small Town Rage, expands upon the documentary and draws on years of interviews, archival research, personal memories, photographs, and historical records. The book documents the individuals who challenged discrimination, confronted government indifference during the AIDS epidemic, and worked to create change in a region where activism often came at a significant personal cost. Through their stories, Hylan explores the courage, resilience, anger, humor, and humanity that fueled a movement.
Now retired, Hylan divides his time between writing, diving, traveling, and continuing to document stories from communities whose histories are too often overlooked. He lives in Mexico with his husband, Troy.
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