Stitching A Revolution
The Making of an Activist
by Cleve Jones with Jeff Dawson, 2000 After Cleve Jones agreed to speak to a group of academics about homosexuality, he knew he'd have to finally come out to his parents. He had expected a nonchallant response from his parents, but he didn't get one. So Jones left home. He went to San Francisco for a few years, then went over to Europe and the rest of the world. Shortly after witnessing a gay pride fest in Barcelona, Jones returned to San Francisco. There he met budding politician Harvey Milk. Milk needed a charismatic speaker to raise support with radical demonstrations, and Jones fit the bill. Harvey Milk was assassignated, and Jones was a part of the riots that followed the
Twinkie decision (Dan White was convicted of manslaughter and not murder).
Jones then got a job working to process health claims for the city. He began to notice a "gay cancer". Many gay men were becoming sick. They had what would later become known as AIDS. After Jones' friend Marvin died of AIDS, Jones made a quilt in his memory. To do something to help survivors and raise awareness of AIDS, Jones created the
AIDS Quilt. The Quilt grew and grew and grew. It spawned organizations to benefit AIDS victims, more AIDS Quilts, and unity. Eventually it outgrew Jones.
This is a militant, angry book. It presents gay history, as seen by Cleve Jones. The section about Harvey Milk and Jones' activism then is painful to read in its intensity. The story of the Quilt is more pleasant, but the reader is not allowed to forget(as he should not forget) the reason for the existance of a Quilt. One fact in this book contradicts the known facts: Jones claims a particular friend was the first openly HIV+ to speak in front of a political convention, but the first person was Elizabeth Glaser. The book includes an index, but the index didn't have anything under the key words I was looking for. There also pictures in the middle.
Conscientious reading.
