David Mixner, a longtime LGBTQ activist who worked on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign and notoriously broke with Clinton over policy on gays in the military, passed away on Monday at the age of 77. Mixner was a member of the LGBTQ community for many years.
It was stated on his Facebook page that he had passed away. The fact that Mixner was friends with Clinton was largely responsible for his rise to national prominence; yet, his activist career spanned a great deal more than that. Mixner was raised in a home that did not have indoor plumbing, and he had a deep understanding and compassion for people who were on the margins of society.
During his teenage years in New Jersey, he participated as a volunteer in John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign in 1960. This was the beginning of his extensive interest in politics. “He told us that we had a responsibility to step out of ourselves as young people and put ourselves out into the world,” Mixner said. After that, he moved to the center of the South in order to participate in the Black civil rights movement. “I went down to Mississippi and Alabama and Georgia and Louisiana and went to jail a number of times in those states working on the efforts,” he remembered in the interview that took place in 2010. “The majority of my attention was directed toward politics, specifically the effort to register African-Americans to vote and the elimination of the poll tax.”
Almost immediately, he became involved in the movement to oppose the Vietnam War. As a result of the terrible beatings he received at the hands of the police during the demonstrations that took place at the Democratic convention in Chicago in 1968, he was obliged to walk with a cane for the majority of his life, as he explained to The Advocate.
In 1969, he was instrumental in the organization of a nationwide moratorium against the war. Over the course of the 1970s, he came out as gay in response to anti-gay movements led by singer Anita Bryant and other individuals. Proposition 6, also known as the Briggs Initiative, was a ballot proposal that was proposed in 1978 in California. If it had been approved, it would have prohibited gays and lesbians from teaching in the public schools of the state.
He and his then-partner, Peter Scott, were among the leaders in the drive to defeat this legislation. They were successful in convincing former Governor Ronald Reagan to publicly oppose the initiative, which ultimately resulted in the bill being overturned by voters. During the 1980s, Mixner became strongly involved in the activism surrounding the AIDS epidemic. Among other things, he assisted in the drafting of laws that would assist California in responding more effectively to the problem. Mixner, who was HIV-positive, stated in an interview with Advocate in 2018 that “there are people who were much more talented and much more articulate than I was.” On the other hand, it is regrettable that they did not survive the outbreak.
Nevertheless, Mixner’s contributions were of great importance. In 1987, he took part in one of the earliest rallies against AIDS that took place at the White House. At the time, Ronald Reagan was the president, and many people were disheartened by the scant reaction that his administration had provided to the pandemic. 64 other people, including Mixner, were taken into custody. His belief, along with those of others, was that if members of the LGBTQ+ community were represented at all levels of government, the government would be better able to respond to the requirements of the LGBTQ+ community.
In 1991, he and a group of other activists established the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which is now known as the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, with the intention of electing politicians who were not members of the LGBTQ+ community to positions of power. Both he and Lynn Greer served as the original cochairs of the board of directors for Victory Fund.
In addition to this, he established the Presidential Appointments Project of the Victory Fund, which is still active to this day and works toward the appointment of LGBTQ+ individuals to positions of power in presidential administrations.In 1992, when Clinton was running for president, Mixner served as his main counsel on LGBT matters. He was also the first out gay person to have a role in a presidential campaign that involved making public statements. Mixner was a strong proponent of Clinton’s decision to eliminate the prohibition on homosexual, lesbian, and bisexual individuals serving in the military after he was elected president. This was one of Clinton’s top priorities.
A compromise was subsequently struck with the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which stated that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) service members were not permitted to come out, but the military was also not allowed to seek them out. Clinton encountered significant opposition in Congress.
Mixner expressed his disagreement with the approach, which led to a rift between him and Clinton as well as the former president’s associates. When Mixner was interviewed by Variety in 2015, he stated, “They made it impossible for me to work for four years.” It is interesting to note that the LGBTQ+ community did not show much support for me, despite the fact that I was barred from entering the White House. However, that is not a problem because I had to act in accordance with my feelings.
After some time had passed, he exerted pressure on President Barack Obama to reverse the policy, which indicated that the military had continued to search for and discharge LGB troops. A piece of legislation that ended the DADT and let these members to serve openly was passed by Congress in 2010, and President Obama signed it into law.
