Short Film on PrEP: Unwrapping Truvada

Featuring Dan Savage, Cleve Jones, San Francisco Supervisor Scott Wiener, and AIDS Healthcare Foundation head Michael Weinstein.

(Tipped by JMG reader Eric)

Cleve Jones On World AIDS Day

NAMES Project founder Cleve Jones has been interviewed in a World AIDS Day article about The Last One, a documentary on the AIDS Quilt now airing on Showtime. An excerpt:

"HIV is increasingly a disease of the marginalized populations. Poverty is part of it. Drug use is part of it. Also to a very large extent stigma remains one of our greatest obstacles. In the early days of the pandemic the stigma of homosexuality was really what kept the government, our government and many others from responding. It fueled the hysteria and created many obstacles. Well the stigma has not gone away. It’s changed though. Young people today, the stigma that they experience comes from their own people. From my generation the stigma came from the outside world and really was the stigma against homosexuality. For these young people today though they are being blamed and shamed. It discourages them from getting tested; it discourages them from talking openly about their status. There’s a new study that shows that almost half of gay men do not reveal their sexual orientation to their own physicians. I think that right there was a pretty startling fact. If half of gay men in the United States don’t feel comfortable revealing their sexual orientation to their physicians, we have a real problem."

HIV/AIDS News: The First Ten Years

JMG reader Dave Evans has compiled the below hour-long clip of news reports from the first ten years of HIV/AIDS. Noted figures that appear: Ryan White, Lyndon La Rouche, Larry Kramer, Ronald Reagan,  Magic Johnson, and Cleve Jones.

At The 1996 AIDS March In DC

I was going through my ex's photo albums here in Fort Lauderdale last night and found this shot I took at the 1996 National AIDS Candlelight March in Washington DC.  That's NAMES Project founder Cleve Jones near the center, with Judith Light to his left.  Further to the right in the grey jacket is Betty Buckley.  On the far left is current DC House Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton and to her left in the leopard jacket is Valerie Harper. The gentleman in the white suit is Jim Graham, who is now on the Washington DC City Council.  

Elizabeth Taylor was ill that weekend and participated in the march from a golf cart, but I couldn't get near her due to a mob of press and only got a blurry photo of the back of her head as she went by.  It was an unspeakably moving night and the next day President Clinton and the First Lady walked with Cleve to view the Quilt, which spanned the Mall from the Lincoln Memorial to the Washington Monument.  Today the Quilt is headquartered in Atlanta, where JMG reader Gert McMullin oversees its safety and makes laborious daily repairs as panels return from displays around the world.

Mixner & Jones: LGBT Community Should Also Demonstrate At Supreme Court

As we learned on Saturday, the National Organization for Marriage is planning a "march on the Supreme Court" on the day the Justices begin hearing arguments on their two same-sex marriage cases. Legendary gay activists David Mixner and Cleve Jones are suggesting a demonstration for the LGBT community too. The pair has co-authored a column for The Advocate.

We have discussed this with some of the smartest and most dedicated activists we know, and, based on those conversations, we offer the following recommendations for action as the court considers our aspirations for equality.  We do not believe it makes sense to attempt a mass march on Washington at this moment, given the short amount of time remaining, the cost, as well as the uncertainty of weather in Washington, D.C., in March. We do believe it makes sense to push hard on many fronts in the weeks and months ahead.

As we are on the verge of victory, our tone and actions are critical.

President Obama himself set the tone for this effort in his inaugural address when he spoke so movingly of Seneca Falls, Selma, and Stonewall, linking forever the struggles for women’s rights, civil rights, and LGBT rights. We encourage all LGBT advocates and all fair-minded Americans who believe in equality and justice to take part in public actions during the last week of March.

- If you can be in Washington, D.C., there will be peaceful and civil demonstrations of support for the cases at the Supreme Court on March 26 and 27. While there, you can also visit your members of Congress to lobby for the Employment Non-Discrimination Act and Uniting American Families Act as well as marriage equality. Our opponents will be marching — ignore them.

- For those who cannot travel, there will be local organizing opportunities and plans under way in all 50 states that will mirror the events before the Supreme Court. Stay tuned. Visit your representatives' local district offices. Hold teach-ins, campus rallies and town halls. Involve our allies in women’s organizations, the labor movement, racial and ethnic minorities and immigrant communities.

Read the full article.

Cleve Jones: It Starts With Me

30 Years Of The SF AIDS Foundation

San Francisco Marches For Harvey Milk

Sean Chapin sends us his video of yesterday's Harvey Milk March in San Francisco. Milk was assassinated November 27, 1978.

NYC LGBT Center Israel Flap Continues

Earlier this week the NYC LGBT Center canceled a planned Israel Apartheid Week meeting after gay porn kingpin Michael Lucas threatened to have the Center's wealthy donors pull their support. Immediately after the event's cancellation, a petition went online with a demand that the Center not let "wealthy bigots censor free speech." Among the petition's sponsors are well-known activists Cleve Jones, Judith Butler, and Sherry Wolf of the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.

Today the Village Voice's Steven Thrasher interviews Wolf, who says it's an insult for her group to characterized as a "hate group" by a pornographer. (Snap!)

"More than half of [Siege Busters] is Jewish, and the others are mostly Arabs, and they call us anti-Semitic? Isn't the center a place where different people are supposed to meet and discuss? Shouldn't Jews and Arabs, gay and lesbian and transgender, working together towards peace be something that is celebrated? We cannot allow a wealthy porn entrepreneur to dictate what kind of speech is allowed, at a center whose very mission is to represent the oppressed and the marginalized!"

Read Thrasher's full interview.

Cleve Jones: Harvey Milk Would Be Horrified To See HRC In His Castro Store

(Via - Queerty)

HomoQuotable - Cleve Jones

"I know your values, Madame Speaker, and I know that you strongly support ENDA. Now I want these young people to know what is in your heart. With the knowledge that health care reform has been achieved and that enough votes now exist in the House today to pass ENDA, will you work with Rep. George Miller, Chair of the House Committee on Education and Labor, to ensure that ENDA is passed out of committee and brought to the floor of the house immediately?

"I am writing this open letter to you and sharing it with my friends in the Courage Campaign and GetEQUAL communities, thousands of whom will sign a petition to you asking that ENDA be prioritized for passage now. You can read the petition and Americans can sign on to it here. Congratulations again on your historic achievement. Along with thousands of other people reading this letter, I wish you the best." - Cleve Jones, in an open letter to Nancy Pelosi requesting she move forward on ENDA. Sign the above-linked petition, which will be hand-delivered to Pelosi.

RELATED: Yesterday Barney Frank said that ENDA may be brought to a House vote as soon as mid-April.

NEM Co-Directors Resign In Controversy Over Future Of Equality Across America

National Equality March co-directors Kip Williams and Robin McGehee have resigned from Equality Across America as the future of the new activism group becomes cloudy. Bil Browning at the Bilerico Project reports:

EAA founder Cleve Jones confirmed that both activists had stepped down from their leadership positions. Everyone involved agreed that the parting of ways resulted from concerns about financial security and the leadership of the new organization. "We're still not sure this is a viable organization," Jones said. "It's still not clear to me that EAA is going to happen yet. There needs to be a working group to take EAA forward. I'll be inviting [the March's] steering committee and executive committee members to participate." Executive committee members elected Tanner Efinger as the interim Project Director responsible for the org's legal contracts with the Tide Foundation. Underlying tensions in the committees, however, have many frustrated activists at the breaking point as various factions vie for control of the organization's leadership.

Kip Williams tells Browning that he resigned partially due to financial reasons, having worked for EAA for minimum wage without health insurance.

Cleve Jones Speaks At The NEM

Cleve Jones Vs. Joe Solmonese

Last night Cleve Jones and Joe Solmonese went head-to-head over the Obama administration's commitment to LGBT rights.

Cleve Jones Invites Obama To Attend National Equality March

Embiggen the below image to read Cleve Jones' letter inviting the president to the National Equality March. As I mentioned here last week, Obama is tentatively scheduled to take part in the Presidents Cup golf tournament in San Francisco that weekend.

Cleve Jones At NYC LGBT Center

National Equality March founder Cleve Jones spoke long and passionately to an enthusiastic overflow crowd at NYC's LGBT Center last night. Numerous well-known activists were in attendance, including Brendan Fay, Gilbert Baker, Lt. Dan Choi, Brandon Brock, and Jeff Campagna, but the only real dissent came from Gay City News' Andy Humm (pictured above on the right, Father Tony on the left). Humm demanded to know what the concrete goals of the March were, leading Jones to repeat his earlier call for "full civil equality in all 50 states."

Mentioning complaints about the March's short lead time, Jones criticized earlier March On Washington events (which had many notable problems), prompting the organizer of the 1987 MOW to lengthily defend its tactics. Jones responded by citing Facebook and other tools of the digital age as obviating the need for yearlong planning. Father Tony provides the video clip below of Jones opening his speech.

UPDATE: Here's World Of Wonder's Wayne Anderson's report from the evening.

Cleve Jones: Two NYC Appearances

NEM founder Cleve Jones will be in NYC this week to give two speeches. On Wednesday he'll be at the NYC LGBT Center at 7PM to talk about the March. On Thursday he'll be in Queens at the Jewish Center of Jackson Heights at 7PM. I'll be at the LGBT Center appearance.

HomoQuotable - Toni Broaddus

"Dear Cleve, We don't really know each other, but I've always respected your work, especially as a leader working on HIV and AIDS issues. And I know that hundreds of thousands of LGBT people still look up to you, especially since your early days of activism have been immortalized on the big screen. But over the past year, I've become increasingly disillusioned by your comments in the press about the work of our movement in the states. You have repeatedly said that 'the state strategy is a failed strategy.' Cleve, nothing could be farther from the truth.

"Over the past three decades, our movement has passed hundreds of laws at the state and local level. By way of contrast, we have been unable to pass any laws at the federal level that would prohibit discrimination against LGBT people, let alone bring us closer to equality. Cleve, it is a fact that the only success our movement has had in securing equal rights for LGBT people to date is at the state level, even as most of our movement's resources have been focused on the national level. Your claim of a failed state strategy simply is not supported by reality. Without our work to achieve equality in the states, LGBT people in this country would have no rights at all." - Equality Foundation executive director Toni Broaddus, in an open letter written to National Equality March founder Cleve Jones, just published on The Bilerico Project.

Read Broaddus' entire letter. She takes great exception to Jones' dismissal of local and state activism as less effective than working for equality at the federal level.

$199,550

That's the bare bones budget for the National Equality March. No circuit parties. No big name entertainment. No lavish VIP dinners. Just a stage, a sound system, a flotilla of porta-potties, and the labor to install and remove same. Right on. You can help wipe out the cost in advance and let this march, unlike the last one, end with a zero balance.

HomoQuotable - Michelangelo Signorile

"It’s time for these new, even risky approaches, and it’s time to ask for it all -- now. That’s why I’m going to Washington for the National Equality March -- called for by legendary activists David Mixner and Cleve Jones -- even though, like others, I wasn’t initially down with the idea. It’s time the rest of us showed up on the National Mall and let Obama know that the cocktail party crowd -- the suck-ups, the sycophants, and the scaredy-cats -- doesn’t represent us. We want full equal rights (or at least see a substantial commitment to moving in that direction) -- not photo ops and wine spritzers.

"It’s not that I was ever really opposed to the idea of a march. To the contrary, as listeners to my Sirius/XM radio show know, I’ve been talking about marching on Washington ever since the morning after Election Day. For me, it’s been a matter of historical precedent: The black civil rights movement wisely took advantage of a window of opportunity in 1963, when Democrats controlled both the White House and Congress. Republicans could no longer be blamed for the lack of civil rights protections, and marchers knew that media attention would put pressure on the Democrats and shame them into action. We have that same window of opportunity today." - Activist and SiriusXM host Michelangelo Signorile, in a lengthy Advocate piece.

Read Signorile's entire essay.