LGBTQ activist and political adviser David Mixner, perhaps best known for challenging then-President Bill Clinton’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, died Monday, a close friend confirmed. He was 77.
“A champion for equality, longtime activist David Mixner’s unwavering voice spanned decades,” Kelley Robinson, president of the Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, wrote on X. “From challenging discriminatory policies to influencing presidential campaigns, his work paved the way for a new political reality and will inspire generations.”
While Mixner spent decades advocating for LGBTQ rights, he’s probably best known for challenging Clinton — for whom he served as a campaign adviser — on the controversial “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.
Mixner was the first openly gay man to hold a public-facing role on a presidential campaign, according to the LGBTQ+ Victory Fund, a nonpartisan nonprofit advocacy group that Mixner co-founded in 1991. However, their relationship soured after Clinton enacted the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which barred gay men and lesbians from serving openly in the military, in 1993.
Mixner joined about 100 activists to protest “don’t ask, don’t tell” outside the White House that year, leading to his high-profile arrest.
“I just have to do what is right,” he told The Washington Post at the time. “I have buried too many friends to compromise. I owe it to them. I owe it to my partner, who died four years ago.”
“He doesn’t have a voice anymore, and I must speak for him,” Mixner added. “That’s what this is all about.”
The controversial policy would remain in place for another 17 years, until Congress and President Barack Obama repealed it in 2011.
Mixner rose to prominence for working with Clinton, but his political activism long predated the former president.
As a teenager he volunteered for John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign, according to an…
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