The Log Cabin Republicans is a political organization founded in 1977 to advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and representation within the Republican Party. Gay conservatives in California organized to oppose the Briggs Initiative, a ballot initiative in the 1978 election which would have banned homosexuals from teaching in public schools. After a successful campaign to defeat the initiatve, the first chapters of the Log Cabin Republicans formed in California.

The Texas chapter was founded in 1993, and the original Houston chapter was incorporated in 1995. The Log Cabin Republicans of Houston helped organize events like the High Noon Rally for Liberty in Fort Worth and the Matthew Shepard Memorial Service. They educated their members about elections, candidates they endorsed, Republican party news, and LGBTQ+ news in their publications LogOn and LogOn2. The Houston chapter also held fundraising events and had regular general membership meetings and board meetings. They organized committees, attended conventions, and coordinated with other chapters in the state and around the country to try to make the GOP platform more supportive of the LGBTQ+ community and to support and endorse conservative politicians with more favorable stances on LGBTQ+ issues. The original Houston chapter became defunct in the late 1990s or early 2000s (source: https://www.texastribune.org/2022/07/24/texas-log-cabin-republicans/).

The current iteration of the Log Cabin Republicans of Houston was founded in 2010. They continue to assist in election campaigns, endorse candidates, and host fundraising events. Their mission is as follows: "The mission of Log Cabin Republicans of Houston is to advocate for our local membership to build a stronger Republican Party. We promote the core values of limited government, individual liberty, personal responsibility, free markets, a strong national defense, freedom, and equality of all Americans, regardless of sexual orientation or minority status." (source: https://www.logcabinhouston.org/).

Gary Van Ooteghem was born in Bay City, Michigan, on February 2, 1942. After serving in the U.S. Navy Reserve and receiving a bachelor's degree from Ferris State University, he moved from Michigan to Chicago and worked as an auditor and a hedge fund controller. Van Ooteghem moved to Houston in 1975 to serve as Harris County Comptroller of the Treasury. During this time, he learned of Leonard Matlovich, a gay U.S. Air Force sergeant who came out and publicly opposed the military's exclusion of gay men from service. Van Ooteghem was inspired by Matlovich's actions and subsequently came out to his boss, County Treasurer Hartsell Gray, also informing him of his intentions to appear before the Harris County Commissioners Court to advocate for a civil rights resolution protecting gay people from discrimination. Gray created a new policy restricting Van Ooteghem's office hours to deter him from engaging in political activities during work hours. When Van Ooteghem refused to sign a statement agreeing to the new policy, he was fired. Van Ooteghem still appeared before the Harris Country Commissioners Court, and later sued Gray successfully on the basis that his dismissal had been unconstitutional as it violated his First Amendment right to free speech. Judge Ross N. Sterling ruled in Van Ooteghem's favor in 1978, and ordered he be reinstated and awarded backpay. Ongoing legal challenges prevented his reinstatement, and he wasn't awarded backpay until 1985, but it still represented an important win for the LGBTQ+ community in Houston.

Van Ooteghem was recruited in 1975 to serve as the first president of the newly-formed Houston Gay and Lesbian Political Caucus. He served as their president from 1975-1977, and then again in 1994. He worked with Ray Hill to organize a protest against Anita Bryant's scheduled performance at the State Bar of Texas annual convention, which was being held in Houston in June of 1977. The protest crowd grew to about 8,000 people and represented one of the first major collective political actions of the Houston LGBTQ+ community. Van Ooteghem ran for public office twice; in 1982 he ran for Harris Country Treasurer, and in 1993 he ran for Houston City Council. Both bids were unsuccessful. Over the course of his career in political activism, Van Ooteghem co-founded the Montrose Activity Center, the Executive and Professional Association of Houston (EPAH), and the Texas Human Rights Campaign, established the "UpFront" LGBT magazine, co-chaired the National Gay Task Force and The Gay Rights National Lobby, served on the board of the Houston chapter of the ACLU and the PFLAG/HATCH Youth Scholarship Foundation, and served as chair of the Houston Area Ryan White Planning Council, which provides funding to HIV/AIDS service providers in the Eligible Metropolitan Area (EMA). Van Ooteghem was a member of Log Cabin Republicans of Texas, and he proceeded Kenneth P. Wilk as president of Log Cabin Republicans of Houston, serving in the role from 1995 to 1998. He suffered a heart attack following a hospital stay for pneumonia and surgery to address blood clots, and passed away at the age of 58 on July 6, 2000. His celebration of life, titled "Agenda: GVO's Last Meeting" was held at Alley Theater on July 15, 2000 and presided over by Texas state representative Debra Danburg.