ABilly S. Jones-Hennin (March 21, 1942 – January 19, 2024) was an American LGBT rights activist based in Washington, D.C.
Beginning in the late 1970s, Jones-Hennin was active in African-American LGBT organizing, helping to found a number of groups, and acted as the logistics coordinator for the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights in 1979. In the 1980s, he was involved with HIV/AIDS education and helped to develop healthcare programs with the Whitman-Walker Clinic.
From the 1990s until his death, Jones-Hennin became involved with disability activism, speaking specifically about homophobia in healthcare settings.
Early life and career
Jones was born Lannie Bess in St. John's, Antigua.[1][2] He was adopted at age 3 by American civil rights activists[2] and raised in Richmond, Virginia, with the name Allen Billy Scott Jones.[1] He was raised alongside nine other adopted children in a home that his physician father turned into a "rehab and nursing center".[1] As a teenager in the 1950s, he participated in lunch counter sit-ins, and, in 1963, he attended the March on Washington.[1] After graduating from high school, he was briefly involved with the U.S. Marine Corps.[3]
In college, he protested against the Vietnam War.[3] In 1967, he graduated from Virginia State University with a degree in business and accounting.[1][2] Later in life, he earned a master's degree in social work at Howard University.[1][2] Jones-Hennin worked as a qualitative researcher.[4]
Activism
In 1978, Jones cofounded the National Coalition of Black Gays (NCBG) in Columbia, Maryland; the organization was the first national advocacy group of its kind for gay and lesbian African Americans.[2][1] In 1979, he was the logistics coordinator for the first March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights[1][5] and helped organize the National Third World LGBT Conference at Howard University that same weekend.[1][2] That same year, the NCBG organized the first delegation of gay people of color to meet with Presidential representatives, of which Jones was a member.[1][6]
Jones also founded the Gay Married Men's Association (GAMMA), co-founded the D.C. chapter of Black and White Men Together,[3] and founded the D.C. Coalition of Black Gays in April 1978.[1][5][7][8] In the 1980s, Jones was a founding member of the Langston Hughes-Eleanor Roosevelt Democratic Club, an alternative to the Gertrude Stein Club.[3][6]
Jones and his then-partner, Chris Hennin, worked with the Whitman-Walker Clinic during the HIV/AIDS crisis to develop healthcare programs, educate the public on the illness, and provide support to those diagnosed.[1][3][5][6][8] In August 1989, he was made head of the Minority Aids Program in Washington D.C.[9]
In the 1990s, Jones pivoted towards disability activism as he faced his own heath problems of spinal stenosis.[1]
In spring 2007, the Rainbow History Project named Jones-Hennin a "Community Pioneer," RHP's most prestigious award. The RHP archives include a 1999 oral history interview with Jones, conducted by Genny Beemyn for their 2015 book "A Queer Capitol: A History of Gay Life in Washington, D.C." as well as a second 2004 interview.
In 2007, Jones was the chair of the DC Mayor's LGBT Advisory Committee.[6]
Jones-Hennin remained involved with activism and local politics[10] and spoke out about homophobia in healthcare in his later years.[4][10]
Personal life
Jones realized he was attracted to men early in his life and initially identified as gay, but chose to marry a woman on the advice of his father.[2][8] He and his wife, who lived in Columbia, Maryland, had three children, but separated after seven years.[2][5] He maintained joint custody of his children, who remained supportive of him throughout his life.[8] After the separation, Jones moved to Washington D.C. in 1977;[3] it was in D.C. that he began identifying as bisexual.[2] By 2022, he also identified as queer.[8] His parents remained supportive of him throughout his life, and after his father's death, Jones learned he had also been bisexual.[1]
In the late 1970s, Jones met his partner and later husband Chris Hennin through the Gay Married Men's Association.[2][5][8] The two married in 2014.[1]
The A in Jones-Hennin's first name came from a godparent's initial; he chose to capitalize the first two letters of his name.[5] Jones changed his surname to Jones-Hennin in 2008.[5]
Jones-Hennin died due to complications from Parkinson's disease and spinal stenosis at his winter home in Chetumal, Mexico on January 19, 2024. He was 81.[1]
