AIDS Quilt Creator Can Keep Benefits

The Atlanta-based Names Project Foundation (NPF), which owns the AIDS Memorial Quilt, promised yesterday not to cut off the health benefits of project creator Cleve Jones, who said he was fired because he pushed for the first display of the quilt in eight years. Jones filed a wrongful-firing lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday.

NPF President Edward Gatta, a New Hampshire interior designer, said in a statement he was "disappointed and saddened" about NPF's dispute with Jones. While not addressing most of the allegations in the suit, Gatta said he was "willing to work for a positive resolution." NPF, Gatta said, would not cut off medical insurance to Jones, who has AIDS and says that without insurance his medications would cost him $22,000 annually.

The 40,000-panel quilt, which Jones began in San Francisco in 1987, has been housed in an Atlanta warehouse since the financially troubled NPF moved it there in 2001. Gatta said NPF hoped to raise funds to reopen an office in San Francisco.

In his suit, Jones alleges he obtained more than $1 million in pledges for a pre-election display of the quilt in October in front of the US Capitol. Gatta said NPF dropped the idea because Jones failed to meet a funding goal of $2 million. But Jones said NPF spurned the money, fired him from his $41,500 job as its spokesperson, and threatened to cut off his health benefits. Jones asked the court to put NPF into receivership so the AIDS Memorial Quilt can be returned to San Francisco and used to educate young people about the dangers of the disease.

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