Dear John,

Today, we lost David Mixner, a founding father of LGBTQ+ Victory Fund and our movement for equality.

David was a courageous, resilient and unyielding force for social change at a time when our community faced widespread discrimination and an HIV/AIDS crisis ignored by the political class in Washington, DC. In 1987, David joined one of the first HIV/AIDS protest outside the Reagan White House, where police wore latex gloves because of the stigma and misinformation around HIV/AIDS. He was arrested, along with 64 others, and made national headlines, when being an out person could lead to harassment, violence or worse. But David was undeterred.

A few years, and many protests later, David and a group of fellow activists came together to discuss solutions to the government’s unresponsiveness to our cause -- including the HIV/AIDS crisis. They determined it was because LGBTQ+ people were not represented among those elected leaders – and that we needed to be in the halls of power to make true change. From that moment, he made transforming our government his life’s work.

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 and democracy representative of its people expanded beyond elections – and moved to ensure we were represented in political parties and presidential administrations as well.

He pushed the presidential campaign of Bill Clinton to be inclusive of gay people – and was asked to join the campaign’s National Executive Committee – the first time an out LGBTQ+ person held a public facing campaign role. When President Clinton won, David launched Victory’s Presidential Appointments Program, pushing the administration to appoint LGBTQ+ people to key political positions. This work continues to this day.

David gave his time, energy and money to building a new political reality in America – having the foresight and dedication to see it through even in the most difficult of times. His legacy is the thousands of out LGBTQ+ people who now serve in elected and appointed positions all across the nation – and the tens of thousands more to come. David embodied the spirit of activism and resistance in everything he did – and always with humor and a smile. He has changed not just America, but the world.

I encourage you to take a moment to watch David talk about the importance of LGBTQ+ leaders in this video.

You can also watch our 2020 Tribute to David Mixner video and hear some of the many stories behind his work and legacy.

Rest in peace, David. And thank you.

Mayor Annise Parker
Pronouns: she|her|hers
President & CEO, LGBTQ+ Victory Institute