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{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2020}}
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[[File:15.DavidMixner.NEM.Rally.USC.WDC.11October2009 (
'''David Benjamin Mixner''' (August 16, 1946 – March 11, 2024) was an American political activist and author. He was best known for his work in [[anti-war]] and [[gay rights]] advocacy.
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Later that year, Mixner dropped out of college and began working for the presidential campaign of [[Eugene McCarthy]]. One of Mixner's first assignments was organizing the Minnesota operation, helping McCarthy win the Minnesota caucus, defeating incumbent President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]]. Later, Mixner and other members of McCarthy's campaign team went to Georgia to help select an alternative delegation to send to the national convention in Chicago, challenging Governor [[Lester Maddox]]'s hand-picked delegation, which included only seven African-Americans in the 117 person delegation. The Georgia Democratic Party Forum, which sought to challenge Maddox's delegation, held its own convention in [[Macon, Georgia|Macon]], where Congressman [[John Conyers]] (D–MI) keynoted their convention before turning over the floor to [[Julian Bond]], the first [[African-American]] elected to the Georgia legislature, who would later become Chairman of the [[NAACP]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.legacy.com/Atlanta/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=1114520 |title=Obituary of Lestor C. Maddox |publisher=Legacy.com |accessdate=December 4, 2013}}</ref>
At the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]] in Chicago, Mixner was allegedly beaten by police during the protests held outside the convention center. After Vice President [[Hubert Humphrey]] claimed the nomination, Mixner began seeking out new outlets for his activism. He soon befriended [[Doris Kearns Goodwin]], who introduced Mixner to Senator [[Ted Kennedy]], who he claimed would become a lifelong friend.{{cn|date=March 2024}}
=== Democratic Party Delegate Selection Committee ===
In early 1969, Mixner was invited to join the Delegate Selection Committee, where he served as his generation's voice, and he intended to use the platform to raise the issue of the violence at the previous year's convention.{{cn|date=March 2024}}
=== The Moratorium to End the War in Vietnam ===
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=== Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles (MECLA) ===
In 1976, Mixner began the process of coming out of the closet, and soon thereafter was a founding member of the Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles (MECLA), the nation's first gay and lesbian [[Political Action Committee]]. At the time, very few candidates were willing to accept donations from openly gay individuals or gay-affiliated organizations. At the time, Mixner was also serving as the campaign manager for [[Tom Bradley (American politician)|Tom Bradley]], the [[mayor of Los Angeles]] who was seeking reelection; so while he worked to raise funds for MECLA, his involvement was kept secret because of the potential for his sexuality to become an issue in Bradley's campaign.{{cn|date=March 2024}}
=== "NO on 6" campaign ===
Soon after Bradley won reelection easily, Mixner turned his focus to fighting [[Briggs Initiative|Proposition 6]], an initiative placed on the California ballot by [[Orange County, California|Orange County]] State Senator [[John Briggs (politician)|John Briggs]] that would make it illegal for gays and lesbians to be schoolteachers. Similar initiatives had recently passed throughout the country when Mixner turned his focus to fighting Proposition 6, creating the "NO on 6" organization to fight it; through the process, he would publicly [[coming out|come out of the closet]].<ref name="schmalz">{{Cite news |title=Gay Politics Goes Mainstream |first=Jeffrey |last=Schmalz |date=October 11, 1992 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/11/magazine/gay-politics-goes-mainstream.html |periodical=[[The New York Times]] |accessdate=September 24, 2007 |archive-date=May 24, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090524025356/http://www.nytimes.com/1992/10/11/magazine/gay-politics-goes-mainstream.html? |url-status=live }}</ref> Mixner and his lover Peter Scott secured a meeting with
As a result of this huge success, Mixner and Scott experienced a huge upturn in business for their fledgling political consulting firm, Mixner/Scott, and were asked by Bill Clinton, then running for governor of Arkansas, to host a reception for Clinton at their Los Angeles home.
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[[The Great Peace March for Global Nuclear Disarmament]], which Mixner would later call his "biggest political failure and [his] biggest regret" ultimately left Los Angeles on March 1, 1986, with only 1200 marchers.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=1166 |title=David Mixner: Politically Speaking: Feature Story at Metro Weekly magazine - News articles from Washington DC newspaper |publisher=Metroweekly.com |accessdate=December 4, 2013 |archive-date=September 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130905225958/http://metroweekly.com/feature/?ak=1166 |url-status=live }}</ref> The marchers reached as far as [[Barstow, California]] before unpaid debts to employees forced the group to a halt, leaving many in the group stranded. Two weeks later, 500 members of the group continued onwards and eventually reached [[Washington, D.C.]]<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-11-09-vw-24076-story.html |title=Unlikely Saga of Great Peace March Nears Its Climax
|author=Kathleen Hendrix |
=== AIDS activism ===
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===''Dunes of Overveen''===
In February 2014, [[The Hollywood Reporter]] announced that [[Alan Cumming]] acquired the rights to ''Dunes of Overveen'', a script written by Mixner and Rich Burns about the true story of gay Dutch artist [[Willem Arondeus]] and the anti-[[Nazi]] uprising of artists he led in Amsterdam during [[World War II]]. Cumming has indicated he would star in the project, which is seeking a director.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/alan-cumming-joins-animated-bremen-684034/ |title=Alan Cumming Joins Animated
|author=Steven Zeitchik |
=== The Mixner Trilogy ===
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====''1969''====
Mixner's original play 1969 was staged at the Florence Gould Hall Theater in New York City on March 6, 2017. Mixner takes theatre-goers back to the year 1969 where, along with [[Sam Brown (activist)|Sam Brown]], David Hawk, and Marge Sklencar, he created the [[Vietnam Moratorium]], which involved protests against the [[Vietnam War]] on October 15 and November 15 of that year. Until the [[2017 Women's March|Women's March]] in 2017, it was the largest march in the history of the United States. In 1969, Mixner revealed the deep personal struggle of being a closeted gay man in that time and a blackmail attempt that threatened to out him. In addition, he tells stories about [[Richard Nixon]], [[Henry Kissinger]], [[John Dean]] and others in the production. At the end, Sam Brown, and David Hawk joined Mixner on stage, the first time they appeared on a stage together in 47 years.{{cn|date=March 2024}}
====''Who Fell Into The Outhouse?''====
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===Death===
Mixner died from [[long COVID]] at his home in [[Manhattan]], on March 11, 2024, at the age of 77.<ref name = Gabriel/>
==Honors==
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[[Category:American gay writers]]
[[Category:Gay memoirists]]
[[Category:
[[Category:American
[[Category:People from Elmer, New Jersey]]
[[Category:Woodstown High School alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century American
[[Category:21st-century American
[[Category:Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in New York (state)]]
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