Cleve Jones Gay Marriage

Is too much enough? Cleve Jones would have to say ‘no’. Driven, since his early years working as an intern in Harvey Milks office, Jones has championed the gay lifestyle for nearly thirty years.

In the wild storm social changes of the 1970’s he forged forward as a student of Political Science at San Francisco State, and worked with the legendary Harvey Milk. The tragedy of Milk’s assassination was a bridge to an even greater conviction as he continued on as an activist. In 1983 AIDS was leveling the community and creating social rifts between gays and heterosexual communities. It was mislabeled as a gay disease and generally thought of as affecting only homosexuals. To help with awareness Jones co-founded the San Francisco AIDS foundation.

In response to the viral epidemic Jones conceived of the AIDS quilt and in 1987 placed the first quilt panel into place. Today the Aid’s Memorial Quilt is the world’s largest community arts project and memorializes over 85,000 American lives. Cleve Jones has been striving for nearly thirty years to make the world open its hearts to gay issues and needs. He has made positive change and helped to transform the climate of the American disposition towards homosexuals We honor him as a gay hero who has given us the opportunity to fight for gay marriage and the repeal of DOMA.