Kenneth Wayne Jones (November 9, 1950 – January 13, 2021) was an American LGBT rights activist.
Life and career
Jones was born in
Paterson, New Jersey
Paterson ( ) is the largest City (New Jersey), city in and the county seat of Passaic County, New Jersey, Passaic County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. After moving to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
in 1969, Jones joined the Navy and served three tours in
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...
. In 1972, he was assigned to
Treasure Island, San Francisco
Treasure Island is an artificial island in the San Francisco Bay and a neighborhood in the City and County of San Francisco. Built in 1936–37 for the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition, the island's World's Fair site is a California Hist ...
, before being honorably discharged. He had said, "In those days you'd get a dishonorable discharge if they discovered you were gay. I was a Vietnam vet with medals. A dishonorable discharge was not in my cards."
After the service, Jones moved to the
Castro District, San Francisco
The Castro District, commonly referred to as the Castro, is a neighborhood in Eureka Valley in San Francisco. The Castro was one of the first gay neighborhoods in the United States. Having transformed from a working-class neighborhood throug ...
in 1973, where he began working for the San Francisco Pride committee, eventually becoming its leader. He was a volunteer at the Kaposi's Sarcoma Research and Education Foundation, which later became the
San Francisco AIDS Foundation
The San Francisco AIDS Foundation (SFAF) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing services for people with HIV/AIDS, with a mission to end the AIDS epidemic in the United States. They were founded in 1982, at the beginning of the AIDS ...
. He left the SF Pride organization in 1991, following the beating of
Rodney King
Rodney Glen King (April 2, 1965June 17, 2012) was an African American man who was a victim of police brutality. On March 3, 1991, he was beaten by Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers during his arrest after a pursuit for driving whi ...
, to focus on police reform issues.
After being diagnosed with HIV, Jones moved to
Ocean Beach, San Francisco
Ocean Beach is a beach on the west coast of San Francisco, California, United States, bordering the Pacific Ocean. It is adjacent to Golden Gate Park, the Richmond District, and the Sunset District. The Great Highway runs alongside the beach, ...
, where he "spent a decade preparing to
die with dignity
Dignified death, death with dignity, dying with dignity or dignity in dying is an ethical concept that refers to the end-of-life process avoiding suffering and maintaining control and autonomy. In general, it is usually treated as an extension of t ...
" only to realize that " emight not be dying after all". He withdrew from public activism for a number of years, before his health improved in the 2000s. In 2009, he became a member of the citizen review board for the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department.
In 2017, he served as a consultant on the miniseries ''
When We Rise
''When We Rise'' is an eight-part American docudrama miniseries about the history of LGBT rights advocacy in the United States from the 1970s to the 2010s. It was created by Dustin Lance Black and stars Guy Pearce, Rachel Griffiths, Mary-Loui ...
''. He was portrayed in the show by actors
Jonathan Majors
Jonathan Michael Majors (born September 7, 1989)Majors in is an American actor. He rose to prominence after starring in the independent feature film ''The Last Black Man in San Francisco'' (2019). In 2020, he garnered wider notice for portraying ...
and
Michael Kenneth Williams
Michael Kenneth Williams (November 22, 1966 – September 6, 2021) was an American actor. He rose to fame in 2002 through his critically acclaimed role as Omar Little on the HBO drama series ''The Wire''. He has been described as a "singular pre ...
.
Jones was also an ordained deacon.
Death
In September 2020, Jones was diagnosed with
bladder cancer
Bladder cancer is any of several types of cancer arising from the tissues of the urinary bladder. Symptoms include blood in the urine, pain with urination, and low back pain. It is caused when epithelial cells that line the bladder become mali ...