Raised in Arizona, Jones moved to San Francisco as a teenager in the early 1970s in order to more easily be gay. He was an intern for City Supervisor Harvey Milk and later worked for State Assemblyman Art Agnos. In the mid-1980s, as the AIDS epidemic spread rapidly, Jones got the idea for what became the Names Project Memorial Quilt, a giant community art project of quilt panels memorializing individuals who died of AIDS. The Quilt was first displayed on the Mall in Washington during the October 1987 national march, and has since been shown around the world. Jones has written a memoir, Stitching a Revolution. More recently, he has worked for UNITE HERE, and international union representing hotel and restaurant workers. He has helped organize boycotts of hotel chains that obstruct workers' right to unionize, and he builds stronger ties between organized labor and the LGBT movement.