Cleve Jones is a human rights advocate who has long been a champion for people living with HIV and LGBTQ+ equality.
He co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1983. Two years later, he conceived of The AIDS Memorial Quilt at an annual candlelight memorial honoring his mentor Harvey Milk, the politician and civil rights leader who was assassinated in 1978. In 1989, The Quilt was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize and has become a worldwide symbol of the fight to end the AIDS epidemic.
Nearly a year ago, President Trump announced an aspirational goal in his State of the Union address: to reduce the number of new HIV infections in the U.S. by 75% within five years, and by at least 90% within 10 years. This goal is certainly ambitious – but it is not unreachable.
By Douglas Brooks, Executive Director, Community Engagement at Gilead
Blog
Every now and then, I allow myself to revisit a time when I feared hearing the phone ring. That such an ordinary occurrence could induce deep emotion reflected the environment in which many of us resided. Knowing that the call could easily be the news of another friend having died or having been rushed to the hospital sometimes froze me in place.
