Ken Davis became a gay liberation activist in 1973. In June 1978, he was one of the founders of Gay Solidarity Group and an organiser of the first Mardi Gras, viciously attacked by police, along with the following campaigns and the Mardi Gras parades in 1979 and 1980. He has been in almost all the Mardi Gras since 1978. He has worked since 1991 in international solidarity and development.