Looking Back At The Gay Rights Movement, After The Legalization Of Gay Marriage

11:00

December 25, 2015

Activist Cleve Jones smiles outside of a U.S. Post Office as customers buy commemorative stamps honoring Harvey Milk, the California politician and gay rights icon, at a U.S. Post Office in San Francisco, Thursday, May 22, 2014. (Jeff Chiu/AP)

Cleve Jones remembers when being gay in America was still a crime. As a young man, he and his friends were beat up by police and harassed on the streets of San Francisco’s Castro neighborhood.

The Castro has become the country’s most recognizable gay neighborhood and a lot has changed there since Jones was coming of age alongside Harvey Milk, the openly gay politician who helped bring recognition to the movement.

We revisit a conversation from earlier this year, in which Jones discussed the past and present of the LGBT rights movement with Here & Now’s Jeremy Hobson, including his belief that the AIDS crisis helped lead to the legalization of same-sex marriage.

Guest

Cleve Jones, human rights and gay rights activist, author and lecturer. He co-founded the San Francisco AIDS Foundation in 1983 and founded The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt in 1987. He tweets @CleveJones1.

This segment aired on December 25, 2015.