Scott Hines, the gay former mayor of Rancho Mirage, California, died last Saturday night following a battle with depression, reports the Desert Sun.

Scott Hines was elected to the City Council in April 2010 and served one term. During the 2010 campaign, residents received fliers encouraging them not to let Hines “infect” the city, a message interpreted by many as an attack on the gay community.

Hines, who served as an Air Force intelligence officer until the early 2000s, worked to raise awareness of the plight of the homeless and a number of LGBT issues. In 2013, he appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show to discuss the U.S. Air Force employment of “ex-gay” therapist Dr. Mike Rosebush as head of the Center for Character and Leadership Development.

Writing on Facebook, Hines’ husband, Kevin Blessing, said:

“I am less of a person today as I will no longer have this man’s wonderful energy around me, at the same time I am so blessed to have had him in my life in the first place.”

Blessing also said that Hines had been suffering from liver cancer.

His biological mother Cindy Gough Montgomery (above right, with Hines) also wrote about her son’s death:

Watch Hines on The Rachel Maddow Show, AFTER THE JUMP…