News
2005-12-16
Portion of AIDS
quilt to be returned to creator
The foundation
that owns the AIDS Memorial Quilt has agreed to return a
portion of the quilt to the project's creator in San
The foundation
that owns the AIDS Memorial Quilt has agreed to return a
portion of the quilt to the project's creator in San
Francisco. The Names Project Foundation in Atlanta
will return 280 of the quilt's some 40,000 hand-sewn
panels to Cleve Jones, the gay rights activist who founded
the project in 1987 in San Francisco, according to his
attorney, Angela Alioto, on Wednesday.
Under terms of the settlement, Jones will create
a nonprofit organization—San Francisco Friends
of the AIDS Memorial Quilt—to care for and
display the quilt. Jones will also be given exclusive
authority to fill two new positions on the Names board
of directors, Alioto said. The settlement ends two
years of legal wrangling over ownership of the
52-mile-long tribute, which features hand-sewn panels
commemorating individuals who died of AIDS.
Jones, who is HIV-positive himself, sued
the foundation in January 2004 after claiming he was
wrongly fired from his position as spokesman for
complaining that the quilt was not being displayed
prominently. Earlier this year a judge dismissed the
wrongful firing and breach of contract portions of
Jones's suit.
Further settlement talks collapsed when the
foundation refused Jones's request to bring the very
first panel of the quilt to the city, which he made in
honor of his partner, Alioto said. That first panel will now
be returned to San Francisco. (AP)
Click here to follow The Advocate on Twitter.
Page 1 of 1