Cleve is a passionate speaker whose powerful storytelling brings history into conversation with the present. Drawing on decades of frontline activism, he speaks with organizations, universities, and communities about civil and human rights, intersectionality, and the parallels between the HIV and COVID-19 pandemics. Cleve Jones works in partnership with APB Speakers for speaking engagements worldwide.

Cleve 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. Cleve has been a driving force behind many of 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, he 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, and was also prominently featured in the critically acclaimed miniseries When We Rise, inspired by his award-winning 2016 memoir of the same title.

Now considered one of the elder statesmen of human rights activism, Cleve 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 of San Francisco in the early 1970s. It was there that he met Harvey Milk, the nation’s most outspoken gay elected official. Cleve worked in Milk’s City Hall office as an intern until Milk’s assassination in 1978. With the onset of the AIDS epidemic, he rose up to organize the gay community and raise awareness, co-founding the San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SAF) in 1983. Unlike many movements today that rely heavily on digital platforms, he helped grow SAF into one of the largest and most influential advocacy organizations of its kind through grassroots 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. Cleve’s first book, Stitching a Revolution: The Making of an Activist, chronicles his life and how the AIDS Memorial Quilt sought to restore hope in a time of tragedy and fear. He 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 successfully challenged California’s Proposition 8 in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Cleve consistently receives rave reviews for both his onstage presence and collaboration with clients. His keynotes resonate with a wide range of audiences, including healthcare and pharmaceutical organizations, fundraising professionals, corporations and organizations focused on diversity and inclusion, human resources leaders, advocacy groups, and universities exploring the history and future of civil and human rights movements. Read Less ^