[1] He conceived the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, which has become, at 54 tons, the world's largest piece of community folk art as of 2020.

[2] His father was a psychologist and his mother was a Quaker, a faith she held at least in part to benefit her son in the era of the draft for the Vietnam War.

[3][2] His career as an activist began in San Francisco during the turbulent 1970s when, as a newcomer to the city, he was befriended by pioneer gay-rights leader Harvey Milk.

Jones worked as a student intern in Milk's office while studying political science at San Francisco State University.

[3] In the same interview, Jones also talked about the time when he became seriously ill, and how he responded rapidly to the "cocktail" of drugs[17] that fought the virus, in the earliest trials of it.

[11] He is prominently featured in And the Band Played On, Randy Shilts's best-selling 1987 work of non-fiction about the AIDS epidemic in the United States.

He is portrayed by actors Austin P. McKenzie and Guy Pearce in the 2017 ABC television miniseries When We Rise, directed by Gus Van Sant.