Remembering David Mixner, a ‘titan’ in the fight for gay rights

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly remembers the life of civil rights leader David Mixner with his friend and mentee, Brian Sims.

MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:

A titan in the fight for gay rights has died. David Mixner was an activist and Democratic political strategist working on JFK’s campaign as a teenager, voicing his opposition to the Vietnam War, fighting over decades for the rights of LGBTQ+ people. All this work came at personal risk. In 1996, he spoke with NPR’s Fresh Air about why he stayed in the closet until the 1970s.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)

DAVID MIXNER: Total fear. I mean, I thought that if anyone found out that I was a gay man that my life as I know it would be over. I certainly knew and changed my dreams from the earliest days of my childhood, and started planning my life based on the fact that a good deal of the benefits of citizenship would be denied me.

KELLY: Well, I want to bring in Brian Sims, a former Pennsylvania state representative. He considered David Mixner his mentor and his friend, and he wrote a tribute on social media to his late friend titled “Legacy Of A Titan.” Brian Sims, welcome. I am sorry for your loss.

BRIAN SIMS: Hi, Mary Louise. Thank you so much for having me, and thank you for drawing attention to, as you said, the loss of an icon.

KELLY: How did you two meet?

SIMS: In the fall of 2009, I was working at the Philadelphia Bar Association. And I was working largely on politics and LGBTQ rights in the commonwealth. And I got a phone call from David Mixner. It showed up as just New York on my caller ID, and I answered. And David, with this sort of booming voice, said, is this Brian Sims? And he said, I don’t know you well, but you probably know me.

KELLY: And was he right? Did you totally know who he was and think, oh, my God, David Mixner’s on my phone?

SIMS: You know, I’ve said to him many times that I didn’t. I was quick to Google him while we were speaking.

KELLY: (Laughter) Yeah,…