Bay Area Reporter - September 15, 2005
Matthew S. Bajko, m.bajko@ebar.com

As part of a settlement to a wrongful termination lawsuit Jones filed in January 2004, the Names Project Foundation has agreed to send 35 of the 12 foot by 12 foot panels that make up the quilt to San Francisco, where they will be cared for by a new nonprofit Jones plans to establish and be put on display for the public and used to promote HIV prevention in the city's schools.

"I fought hard to get the entire quilt back because I believe strongly that the quilt, like the rainbow flag, like the Gay Games, could only have started in San Francisco," said Jones. "I am not entirely satisfied by the settlement but at least we are going to have quilts here for World AIDS Day this year."

Names Project officials did not return calls seeking comment. Jones said that overall, he is "pleased" with the terms of the settlement, to be finalized Tuesday, September 20.

"It's been a difficult process for all of us. I am sure we are all glad it is over," he said.

Each of the 35 blocks being sent to the Bay Area consists of eight individual quilts, and Jones has specifically requested the first quilt he stitched together in 1987 for his friend Marvin Feldman be among those housed in the Bay Area.

"My top priority is to get the quilt back and involved in HIV prevention throughout the school district. That is a sufficient number to do a standard display at a high school gymnasium," said Jones. "If you look at new infection rates, you see a vast majority of newly infected are young people. I recently met a 19-year-old who had found out a week prior he was infected and he had never seen the quilt."

On December 31, 2003 the Names Project Foundation, which moved its headquarters and the more than 44,000 quilt panels to Atlanta in 2001, terminated Jones as its "founder for life," which entitled him to a yearly salary of $41,500. In 1990 Jones had resigned as executive director but agreed to stay on helping with fundraising, serving as a spokesman for the project, and advising the foundation's board of directors.

A decade later Jones began to criticize the foundation leaders and questioned why the quilt was not being displayed or being utilized as a powerful and emotional tool in the fight against AIDS. The two sides came to loggerheads in the summer of 2003 over Jones's desire to launch a nationwide tour of the quilt, leading to a supposed "gag order" being placed on Jones that fall and eventually his firing and subsequent lawsuit that winter.

A San Francisco Superior Court judge had ruled earlier this year that the foundation had grounds to fire Jones and that no employment agreement had been breached. As the legal battle comes to an end, Jones did not achieve his ultimate goal û seeing the return of the entire AIDS quilt to San Francisco. Nor will his previous salary with the foundation be reinstated.

"There is no money in the settlement for me," said Jones, who hopes to move to the city by his 51st birthday on October 11, National Coming Out Day.

But he will be given a say on the foundation's board in the form of two members he will be able to select. He is seeking qualified candidates to appoint to the board seats, whose terms begin next June. Also, if the board adds five new members to its current 14 seats, Jones will be given an additional appointment.

"I am pleased with this because it is a step forward for me. I have been unable for years to have any impact on that board of directors," said Jones. "I am quite delighted to have permanent representation on the board that will continue for my life."

In the meantime, Jones is selling his Palm Springs home and plans to move back to San Francisco as soon as possible to form a new 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that will oversee the use and maintenance of the quilt in the Bay Area. He would like to call it the Names Quilt Center, but the foundation has asked that it be called the San Francisco Bay Area Friends of the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

"We are going to see what we are allowed to call it. You can't have names too close to other names," said Jones, who is also looking for a location to house the quilt panels and allow volunteers to meet and sew new panels. He also needs to form a volunteer board to oversee the new center.

Jones said he would like to have everything in place by November 27, the 20th anniversary of when he first thought of quilting a memorial to remember those who had died from AIDS. On that night back in 1985 Jones conceived of the AIDS quilt during the candlelight march and vigil to mark the assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the city and state's first openly gay politician.

"Old-timers will remember that that week the San Francisco Chronicle had a headline that 1,000 San Franciscans were already killed by AIDS. Friends and I went through the Bay Area Reporter's obituaries and pulled names and wrote them on cardboard placards. At the conclusion of the march we went to the old Federal Building at United Nations Plaza where we had hidden extension ladders. We climbed up the ladders and tapped the names across the fa ade of the building. Looking at the patchwork of names I had the idea of the quilt," recalled Jones, who stitched together the first panel a year and half later.

As he turns to the community to help with fundraising and displaying the quilt, Jones stressed, "I want to make it clear to the community that everything about this organization will be transparent and accountable."

Having the community's support will be key, because as part of the settlement, the foundation has placed restrictions on Jones's ability to raise money for the local project. He cannot solicit funds from individual major donors to the Names Project and he must get the project's permission to ask for more than $5,000 from governmental or corporate entities.

"That means I am going to be really relying on those folks who can give $1,500 or $2,500 on a regular basis," said Jones. "But I have no intention of putting together some big expensive operation up there."

The costs for the quilt center will greatly depend on how much monthly rent will be, said Jones. He also needs to raise the funds required to pay for the shipping of the quilt to San Francisco from Atlanta.

"We are getting no financial assistance from the foundation. We have to pay for transportation of the quilt and insurance," said Jones. "I don't think it will be very expensive, the main expense will be the space. We just need a small storefront where we can have the quilt housed and do quilting bees and have a place to meet. I don't think we will need more than three or four staff people. Maybe an angel could appear and donate the space, that would take a big chunk out of the cost."

Anyone interested in serving on the board of the new center or making a financial donation can reach Jones at cleve@clevejones.com.

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