Ed Williams is breaking ground as the first openly gay chairman appointed to the Clark County Republican Party. Having sold his successful business, this 43-year-old tech expert is dedicating himself full-time to his new role with the party, and you can bet he plans to make a difference. Williams spoke with Gay Vegas shortly after the news hit, and we got to know the man and his motivations. 

So Ed, tell us a little bit about who you are. 

Well I was born in Germany, son of an air force family. I was born into the air force and went all around the world with my family – stationed a lot in the southwest. I went to CSU Sacramento and got into computers – did computer science there. And Sacramento’s really been my home base for a long time since then. I moved to Las Vegas about four years ago. I was looking for some new scenery, as it were. California was getting a bit oppressive for me as a businessman so I was looking for some new opportunities. I found that Las Vegas was a perfect match for me. A lot of my family lives in Irvine, and there’s a great airport here and I travel a lot. And, of course, moving to Nevada gives a guy an instant 20 percent raise. So all around, I’m very happy with Nevada, and very pleased with making this my new home. 

Did you have a job lined up in Las Vegas when you moved here? 

I’m a business owner, so I own different companies. The latest company I owned was called American Web, and I just recently sold that actually. So at this point in time I’m effectively retired, but I’m a little too young to not be doing things with my life. Right now 

I’m choosing to give back to my country by serving in politics.

How did you first get into politics?

When I was running my Internet companies back in California we did lots of work for political campaigns, non-profits, membership organizations, and things like that. So that was really my first introduction into how we govern ourselves and what sort of interests groups there are that impact that, and so as I worked more and more with these organizations on communications, marketing, and technology, I got more and more familiar with that. I did some work with some political campaigns, and then worked my way through that. Probably the peak of my involvement was I was the IT Director for the 2004 Republican convention in New York. 

How did that come about?

That came about because California has the largest delegation to the convention – it has the most number of delegates. A lot of the duties fell to California, so that was really my entry into it. It was actually really fun. It was the first convention after 9/11 and it was happening in New York so there was a lot of encryption and a lot of security and all those sorts of things going on because everybody wanted to make sure that the experience went well and that everybody was safe. That was very exciting.

Now you’re the first openly gay person to chair the Clark County Republicans. Can you tell us a bit about this?

It’s just part of my value system. I believe very strongly in our rights as Americans not to have our lives unnecessarily interfered with by the government. And that includes my family, my religious beliefs, my relationships – and so when it comes to what would be considered gay issues, I tend to side on keeping the government out of that. That’s really where my beliefs as a Republican come in. Some might characterize that as somewhat Libertarian, and that might be the case, but I – I’m really uncomfortable with the concept of the government dictating my actions or my words or who I can associate with in the name of political correctness. That bothers me. That’s really where my personal and my political beliefs kind of come together. 

When did you come out in your political life? Did you pick and choose whom you wanted to come out to? 

In my life I generally pick and choose because I do feel it’s a personal thing for me. I’m somewhat of a private person. That’s just been a natural thing for me. So yeah, I’ve been selective of whom I reveal parts of my life to. It’s nice for people to get to know you before making a judgment call based on your sexual orientation, because unfortunately that does happen. And as you get older you get more tools for communicating with people, more practice at it, and so it’s become easier for me to engage in those conversations with people in a way that’s productive. The last few years actually I’ve been really surprised at the number of people I’ve talked to that don’t necessarily agree with all of my views, and yet they’re still willing to engage in a conversation and understand where I come from, and I can understand where they come from. Having that level of conversation with people takes some practice, but I’m at that point now where it comes much easier.

What do you think you being chairman says about your political party? Is it a sign of the times? Well it’s certainly not the first step by any means. If we go back a little bit, in 2014 both the Clark County Republican Party and the Nevada State Republican Party removed social issues from their platforms. They removed both traditional marriage and abortion from their platforms. So I think the change was well underway a couple of years ago. And there have been other openly gay people in our party that have had positions of leadership in varying sorts. We’ve had a Log Cabin Republicans chapter here in Nevada for many, many years. They were very active back in the ‘90s working to repeal Nevada sodomy law. So it certainly wasn’t an overnight thing, but I think it’s a positive development that people are willing to overlook personal issues to focus on things that are really important for our country.

The question of how you can be gay and be Republican, how do you respond to that?

My answer is conservative values protect my rights as well as yours. In order for me to have free speech, you have to have free speech too, and that sometimes means that we might not be comfortable with each other’s free speech. But the alternative is political correctness and censorship, and that’s no way to be an American. I had a choice to make, I suppose, in a sense. And it just made more sense to me to work at keeping the Republicans out of my bedroom more than I had a chance of keeping the Democrats out of my wallet. To me, ironically, the Republican Party has always been a party of choice because it’s actually represented a diversity of views.

Taking a step back now, when did you first come out of the closet? 

I came out to my mother when I was 14, and then kind of progressively throughout life, becoming more and more comfortable in my own skin. And then as our society has evolved and made it easier to be a full participant in society, that’s been most welcome. 

Are you a man of faith? 

Yes, yes I am. My background is Catholic. I was raised as a child as a Catholic, and my beliefs in high school changed over to something more non-denominational Christian, and I’ve kind of been in that space for a long time. 

Did you come out to both your parents at 14?

My dad was a little later.

And how did he take it? 

He’s a very levelheaded guy. I didn’t really sense any judgment from him. I think most of the feelings that I had were worries in my own mind about how things would be taken, because he’s a military man. But in reality he loves me, so that’s what came through.

And here you are making your parents proud. 

Oh yeah. Absolutely. I’ve had a very blessed life. In every way possible. I have had the absolute thrill ride of running Internet companies in the middle of the dot-com boom. I’ve seen the success that hard work brings. 

You don’t get any luckier. I’ve had the blessings of prosperity that our country brings, and the freedom to be myself. I have nothing to complain about. I’m a lucky guy.