So sad to hear of the passing of Gay Activist David Mixner. He was a force to be reckoned with in the advancement of our LGBTQ equality. I didn’t know him personally beyond our Facebook friendship but always appreciated his input on our stories & podcasts. Mayor Annise Parker, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund President & CEO stated, “Today, we lost David Mixner, a founding father of LGBTQ+ Victory Fund & our movement for equality. David was a courageous, resilient & unyielding force for social change at a time when our community faced widespread discrimination & an HIV/AIDS crisis ignored by the political class in Washington, DC. In 1987, David joined one of the first HIV/AIDS protests outside the Reagan White House, where police wore latex gloves because of the stigma & misinformation around HIV/AIDS. He was arrested, along with 64 others & made national headlines, when being an out person could lead to harassment, violence or worse. But David was undeterred… In 1991, he joined other activists to launch a new organization, LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, that exclusively supported LGBTQ+ candidates. David served with Lynn Greer as a founding board co-chair. With support for candidates underway, his vision of a government & democracy representative of its people expanded beyond elections & moved to ensure we were represented in political parties & presidential administrations as well. He pushed the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton to be inclusive of gay people & was asked to join the campaign’s National Executive Committee – the first time an out LGBTQ+ person held a public facing presidential campaign role. When President Clinton won, David launched Victory’s Presidential Appointments Program, pushing the administration to appoint LGBTQ+ people to key political positions. That work continues to this day…” (Portrait by Christopher Oakley)
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