DAVID MIXNER (1946–)

 

“I have a vision and you are part of it,” then candidate Bill Clinton promised a largely gay audience in Los Angeles on May 18, 1992. It was the first time a serious contender vowed to include gay rights and gay people in the American conversation. By this time, David Mixner, the founder of Municipal Elections Committee of Los Angeles (MECLA) PAC, had been raising money for candidates for years, but he was accustomed to having checks returned to him if they could be traced to openly gay sources. Here, it appeared, was a politician who could embrace the gay community. Indeed, Clinton campaigned on the promise to allow all citizens to serve in the US military regardless of sexual orientation, overturning a long-term ban on gays in the military and vowing to direct more money to research and services for people with AIDS.

Joy quickly turned to shock and sadness as President Clinton, facing pressure from members of the military, Congress, and the public signed on to “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”—a compromise that enabled gay people to serve, as long as they were closeted. In Mixner’s 1993 speech that follows, he exhorts President Clinton to make history, not sign away people’s freedom for the sake of political expediency. Specifically, President Clinton proposed having barracks segregated by sexuality. Sadly, a mere eight months after this speech in 1993, the president signed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” into law, where it remained until September 20, 2011. Mixner’s March 1993 speech at the Metropolitan Community Church in Dallas, Texas, begins with visibility, but moves quickly to the demand for full participation in all of the institutions the US holds sacred. While the issue of that election cycle was the military, it set the stage for extending the rights and responsibilities of marriage to gay people.