February 23, 2009

AIDS Activist Cleve Jones Reacts to Milk Oscar Success

At the 81st Academy Awards on February 22, Sean Penn was honored with an Oscar for Best Actor for his role in Milk in which he portrayed assassinated gay rights activist Harvey Milk. During his acceptance speech, Penn thanked Milk’s protégé and founder of the AIDS Memorial Quilt and NAMES Project Foundation, “the great Cleve Jones.”

Jones, played by Emile Hirsch in the biopic, attended the Oscar ceremony in Los Angeles, The Desert Sun reports. Jones said he was moved by Penn’s nod in his victory speech as well as by the attention the film has brought to the issue of equal rights for all Americans regardless of sexual orientation.

“There’s no question, I’m so proud of Sean,” Jones told the paper. “Tonight the movement [toward equal rights] was significantly advanced. There is a strategy. There is a way to move forward.”

Another Milk Academy Award went to Dustin Lance Black, who won for Best Original Screenplay. Like Penn, Black mentioned gay rights and same-sex marriage equality in his acceptance speech.

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Previous Comments:

Alex Henry, London, 2009-02-26 05:20:36
Sean Penn, once a homophobe is living proof that people can be educated and bigotry eliminated, he worked hard to win the award so he should be able to say what he likes, it is great that he thanked Cleve, but I agree that someone should have remarked what a different world it would have been had Harvey lived to tackle the way America handled or rather didn't handle the AIDS crisis.

Henry (Perscompsvc@yahoo.com), Williamsburg, Va., 2009-02-25 20:27:39
Hey I am a SGWM and wish I could meet both Cleve Jones and Sean Penn. Cleve and Penn both was portrayed as my idol. They both need to be recognized. Cleve if you read this you can im me on yahoo at Perscompsvc as I would love to meet you and express my deepest love to you. I want to meet you so bad. Continue all the great work in the LGBTQQ Community. You will always be in my prayer. I would love to just shake your hand just once. You are a hero. I want to one day be remembered as you are. Love.

Fred Mertz, , 2009-02-24 11:07:38
Harvey Milk's murder was tragic but Sean Penn means what to me. Next time use the space to run a story about something important to those affected by a virus.

MAS, Lawndale, 2009-02-24 10:46:58
I am HIV positive, but I am heterosexual. I do support the right to marry no matter your sexual orientation. What I do not support is using a awards ceremony as a place to be political. Thanks those who gave you the award, your immediate family, and get off stage.

Robert W. Toth, Cleveland, 2009-02-24 10:26:01
While I applaud the well-deserved Oscar wins and nods, as a 20-year survivor living with AIDS, I'm surprised no one thought to say - Would AIDS still be here if Harvey [Milk] was?!