A passionate speaker with a powerful story, Jones is now speaking out for all who struggle for equality and fair treatment. He brings both historical perspective and storytelling talent to timely discussions of diversity, intersectionality, civil and human rights and the stunning parallels between the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics.

Jones currently works as a community organizer for UNITE HERE, the international union representing hotel, casino, food service and restaurant workers. He came to labor activism already a hero in the struggle for gay, lesbian and transgender rights, and a fearless champion for those living with HIV. Jones has been a driving force behind the most important gains made by the LGBTQ+ community over the last five decades. From his early days in the “gay liberation” movement with Harvey Milk to co-founding the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, founding the AIDS Memorial Quilt and fighting for marriage equality, Jones has made history as part of one of the most effective human rights movements of all time. He was portrayed by Emile Hirsch in the Oscar-winning film Milk, for which he served as a historical consultant. Jones was also prominently featured in the critically acclaimed miniseries When We Rise, which was inspired by his award-winning 2016 memoir of the same title.

Now considered one of the elder statesmen of human rights activism, Jones came to advocacy through his own struggle as a gay man born in the mid 1950s. As a teen runaway, he was drawn to the progressive life and politics and of San Francisco in the early 1970s. It was there that he met Harvey Milk, the nation’s most outspoken gay elected official. Jones worked in Milk’s City Hall office as an intern until Milk’s assassination in 1978. With the onset of the AIDS epidemic, Jones rose up to organize the gay community and raise awareness, co-founding the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SAF) in 1983. Unlike the movements of today which rely heavily on digital marketing and social media, Jones grew the SAF into one of the largest and most influential advocacy organizations of its kind through grass roots efforts.

In 1987, he founded the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, the world’s largest community arts project, memorializing the lives of more than 85,000 Americans. Jones’s first book, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist chronicles his life and how the AIDS Memorial Quilt project sought to restore hope in a time of tragedy and fear. Jones led the 2009 National March for Equality in Washington D.C. and also served on the Advisory Board of the American Foundation for Equal rights, which challenged California’s Proposition 8 in the U.S. Supreme Court, winning a landmark victory for marriage equality.

Jones consistently receives rave reviews for both his onstage presence and collaboration with clients. His keynotes have won the hearts of a wide range of audiences, including a pharma company developing HIV drugs, fundraising professionals interested in community engagement, companies and organizations celebrating diversity and gay pride, human resources professionals seeking an LGBTQ perspective, advocacy groups wishing to learn from his experience, and universities and groups interested in the history of the gay rights movement and civil rights. Read Less ^