Michael Jones (activist)

Michael Jones (born September 24, 1964) is an American music talent manager, producer, director, and author. From 1984-1988, he was a controversial activist credited with enabling the gay and lesbian community of Indianapolis to become more active and visible. His active period in Indiana was short, but in that time he was deeply involved in helping Ryan White and working to advance the rights of gays and lesbians. The controversy around him was centered on his brash and sometimes self-aggrandizing style.

History

Michael Everett Jones was born on September 24, 1964 in Indianapolis, Indiana, the only child of Everett Jones, Jr., a real estate broker, and Marlene Jean Hider Jones, a bookkeeper. Just 19 years later, he would become an outspoken proponent of gay and lesbian rights at the state then national level.

On Friday, June 26, 1984, Jones had been socializing with friends on Monument Circle in downtown Indianapolis. The area was well known as a gathering place for young gay males and had become a target for police activity. That Friday night, two plainclothes Indianapolis Police Department officers approached Jones, questioned him, frisked him and one groped his genitals. They left, telling Jones and his friends to move on.

Jones would later write about his experience for the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. "I was searched and had my ID checked by two unidentified officers Police Department's Tactical Unit,” he wrote. “ After having had received 23 complaints, including mine, within just a few weeks, the ICLU moved to the center of attention, speaking out against this harassment of gays." ^[1]

Instead of moving on, an outraged Jones went to the local media. His contention that police were targeting gays unfairly resonated with many throughout the city’s gay and lesbian community. Police had already been caught videotaping gays and lesbians a year earlier. The news sparked weekly Friday night protests, called “Gay Knights on the Circle” at the landmark, beginning July 22, 1984.^[2] The protests were organized by two of the gay community’s best-known leaders: Stan Berg, owner of the Body Works, a gay bathhouse in Indianapolis and publisher of the city’s only gay publication, The Works; and Kathy Sarris, who presided over a gay rights organization called Justice. Their relationship with Jones was cautious at best, given that he was politically ambitious and threatened the established order. In fact, they would not even mention Jones by name in those early days and The Works would not print his name until October 1984.

The protests culminated on the evening of Friday, August 31, 1984 when hundreds of gay men and lesbians gathered in a final demonstration. Despite multiple death threats including threats of sniper fire, Dr. Bruce Voeller, then president of the Mariposa Foundation and former director of the National Gay Task Force, delivered a speech to the crowd, as did other prominent leaders. Jones, however, stole the spotlight with a fiery speech that brought the crowd into a near frenzy. “It was like the entire city just stopped for his speech,” one man told The Indianapolis Star. “You didn’t hear any cars, no people, just Michael’s voice reverberating off the buildings. It was thrilling and eerie at the same time.”

One afternoon, while waiting to tape an interview at the local CBS affiliate, Jones was approached by Michael Gradison, executive director of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, the state’s ACLU chapter. Gradison asked Jones if he would be interested in spearheading a statewide effort focusing on gay and lesbian rights. Jones took the opportunity and created the Gay and Lesbian Rights Task Force of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union. Jones formed the Task Force on July 28, 1984.^[3]

This move on the ICLU’s part seemed to only strain the relationship between the organization and the city’s gay leadership. Shortly after the creation of the Task Force, Berg and Sarris met with ICLU leaders. The previous year, the ICLU had reached an agreement with the Indianapolis Police Department to establish restrictions on the Department’s videotaping of gays and others, but had not included any of the gay leadership. Stan Berg wrote a brief story in The Works aptly titled, “ICLU and Gay Leaders Agree to Disagree.” ^[4] Over the course of the next two years, Jones would criss-cross the state delivering speeches about gay rights and giving interviews to local media. In 1986, at the American Civil Liberties Union’s annual conference in Boulder, Colorado, Jones isolated himself in his room and after an entire night, he emerged with a draft policy on non-discrimination against people with AIDS and HTLV-III (the first name for HIV) and a resolution opposing mandatory AIDS testing. Both policies were adopted virtually unchanged. This conference was also attended by another person who would have a major leadership role in gay and lesbian politics, Urvashi Vaid. She and Jones met at a party in Boulder and spent most of their evening forging ideas about the future of the movement. Vaid would later become executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force.

Involvement with Ryan White and Other Controversies

Perhaps the most significant moment in his gay leadership role came when Jones was contacted by an exasperated mother from Kokomo, Indiana named Jeanne White. Her young son Ryan had been barred from attending school because he had AIDS and she did not know where else to turn. Over the uneasiness of many in the organization, Jones took on young Ryan’s cause and made several public appearances with him. Explaining his interest in the case, Jones told the Indianapolis Star on August 4, 1985, "Cases like Ryan [White]'s and Rock Hudson have brought the panic to a high point in Indiana." He continued, "The more people hear, the more they are concerned and that could work two ways. I can see more being educated about AIDS, or I can see more discrimination (against AIDS victims)." ^[5] Some were uncomfortable seeing an openly gay man escorting a young boy with AIDS to public events. In Kokomo, public debate had gotten vitriolic to the point that some made an allegation that Jones and Ryan’s mother were, in fact, lovers.

During his tenure at the Civil Liberties Union, Jones was frequently controversial. Many pioneers in the gay rights movement, including Berg and Sarris, resented Jones for what they saw as grandstanding and demeaning their longstanding contributions. Within his own organization, Jones was openly criticized as a “megalomaniac.”

Jones frequently made offhanded remarks to reporters that created an uproar and many believed these were just more publicity stunts. He once told a reporter in Terre Haute, Indiana, that he believed accused serial killer Larry Eyler was guilty, based on inside information he had received. The Terre Haute Tribune-Star reported, “Unlike other gays who were shocked by the revelations, Jones said he was privy to inside police information. ‘I saw the evidence as it kept building,’ Jones said.” ^[6] The story made it onto the wire services, prompting many to question Jones’ commitment to civil liberties when impugning guilt to someone only accused. Others stated that Jones had lied, that he was not privy to any inside information. Eyler was later convicted of murdering multiple young men in Indiana and Illinois. Jones later stated that he had been shown evidence years prior by unnamed members of the Central Indiana Multi-Investigational Task Force (CIMIT) which convinced him Eyler had committed the murders. Kathleen Zellner, Eyler's attorney, confirmed Eyler's involvement in 21 murders by releasing his confessions at the time of his death.

Other skirmishes between Jones and local leaders erupted. In November 1984, three men in Richmond, Indiana were arrested for prostitution. They took their case to Jones and the ICLU. Jones responded by publicly accusing the police of conducting a “witch hunt” and of entrapping the three men. The Palladium-Item, Richmond’s newspaper, on December 23, 1984, published an editorial asking, “Who is harassing whom, and who is hunting what witches? “ The editorial went on to state, “Jones and the Indiana Civil Liberties Union are not a judge and jury, and yet their charges carry a presumption of police guilt…The ICLU has embarked on a witch hunt of its own.” ^[7]

In 1985 Jones traveled to Richmond, Indiana to deliver a speech at Earlham College. Again, he stirred controversy, but this time by referring to homosexuality in near religious terms. “Jones described homosexuals as ‘a chosen people—chosen by powers beyond this world to help build that society of brotherhood.’ “ ^[8]

In 1987, Jones abruptly announced he was stepping down from the Task Force and moving to Los Angeles. He named Marla Randolph Stevenson, a lesbian and Wicca practitioner, as his successor. She would go on to become a cornerstone of the gay and lesbian community. During 1986 and 1987, Jones seemed to assimilate into the establishment, being asked to preside as an honorary judge at the annual International Festival along with then-Mayor William Hudnut.

Popular Indianapolis Star columnist Dan Carpenter wrote a tribute to Jones shortly before Jones left for Los Angeles. Citing a confrontation that occurred between Jones and a young KKK heckler in which Jones met the young man with “plain old you-and-me, eye-to-eye conversation,” Carpenter wrote, “It’s also illustrative of the temperament Jones brought to the unpaid job, a job he created at the age of 19 shortly after he had come out of closet as a homosexual.” He continued: “All his [Jones’] trials since then—the negotiations with government officials, the protest demonstrations, the lawsuits, the legislative lobbying, the countless speeches and the struggle to help his middle-class family accept his sexual orientation–have left him not burned out but lit up…Jones has much to do with the growing militancy in the gay community here.”^[9]

Contributions

In the end, Jones' contribution to the gay and lesbian community in Indianapolis was the acceptance he gained by the larger community. Unlike his predecessors like Berg, who was a bathhouse owner, Jones was youthful, ordinary and likeable. It was easy for the public to accept him. By being accepted, Jones was able to continue the dialogue and open the doors for many of the community's gay people and organizations today.

Current Life

Jones moved to Los Angeles in 1988 and began working as a freelance writer covering musical artists and other entertainment personalities. He covered and associated with many entertainment figures including Whoopi Goldberg, Sandra Bernhard, Andy Bell and Vince Clarke of Erasure, Information Society and Warhol Superstar Holly Woodlawn. His friendships with Steve Bronski of Bronski Beat and author Dennis Cooper encouraged him to pursue a career in music while continuing his work as a writer.

Jones wrote a collection of short stories, "Snuff," which Penguin USA backed out of publishing for fear of public backlash.^[10] Some of the stories were later published individually. Dennis Cooper, for instance, published one in the anthology "Discontents." ^[11]

In 1994, Jones founded MJM, a marketing and management company. While the venture was lucrative, by 1996 Jones grew increasingly depressed and reportedly couldn't sleep for six months. He sold the company and embarked on a spiritual journey in which he studied Buddhism at a Tibetan monastery and later, South American shamanism. During a shamanic journey, Jones reported encountering a "celestial and sexy female entity" who instructed him to "study human nature and teach peace to change the world." Jones promptly enrolled in graduate school and earned a master's degree in clinical psychology by 2000. He worked in psychiatric hospitals and wrote a book, Nothing to Fear: A Self-Help Guide to Overcoming Panic Attacks for Life, during this time. "I didn't know why I had to go through it at the time, but I realize now it was an invaluable experience that would make me a better manager."^[12]

Jones never left the music industry, though. In 2001, he created the e Factory, specializing in electronic dance music artists, and promoted after-hours clubs in LA.

In July 2010, Jones founded KounterKulture Mgmt+Media, a talent management and artist development company. While managing major musical artists, he has been instrumental in launching the careers of electronic dance music artists Vegamoore, pop star Francis Bowie, and the alternative rock group Babble. He has also worked as a producer and video director.

He created record label and music publisher dGenerate Music Group while working as a manager. Known as an "incubator" label, dGenerate has been home to several electronic dance music and pop artists worldwide.

Jones was once described as "an outspoken maverick and committed playboy with brilliant business acumen who might just be a creative genius,"^[13]

In 2014, Jones moved the label to Seattle, Washington where he founded Internet radio station Puget Sound FM. He is the father of two sons.

References