In his first term in the Texas Legislature, Jones has been a tireless HIV advocate
DAVID TAFFET | Senior Staff Writer
taffet@dallasvoice.com
State Rep. Venton Jones entered office in January as the first member of the Texas Legislature to be openly HIV-positive. Rather than hide his diagnosis, he has used it as his foundation as he has championed legislation to help end the AIDS epidemic.
For his honesty and bravery — and for his outstanding success as a freshman lawmaker — Dallas Voice names Venton Jones our LGBTQ North Texan of the Year.
Winning office
In 2022, Jones ran for the open District 100 seat, which includes parts of South Dallas, West Dallas, East Dallas, Buckner Terrace, Victory Park and Oak Cliff in the Texas House. He ran to replace the Democratic incumbent, Jasmine Crockett, who had served just one term when she successfully ran to replace retiring Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson in the U.S. Congress. Crockett had replaced state Rep. Loraine Birabil in Austin, who had been elected to fill the vacancy created when Eric Johnson, who held the seat for a decade, was elected Dallas mayor.
So, one thing residents of House District 100 were looking for was stability.
Although Jones was the only candidate in the five-way race who had never run for office, he already had 10 years of experience working in Washington. When he had returned to Dallas, he had moved back into the district where he was raised, buying the house across the street from where his grandmother still lives.
Jones handily won in a run-off against an opponent who had served just one term on the Dallas City Council.
Background
Jones graduated from Texas A&M, where he was a pre-med student, with a degree in community health. But rather than going to med school, Jones began working in community health, earning his master’s degree in that subject from UT Arlington.
Jones has explained that it made sense to him to help the community before they got sick, which is why he chose to become involved in preventive care and education.
After college, Jones moved back to Dallas, becoming one of the first employees of Abounding Prosperity Inc. Among the innovative projects he helped launch was Chat ’n Chew, a program giving young Black men opportunities to get together to discuss social and economic issues around managing their HIV.
Later, Jones went to work for Resource Center, where he helped launch United Black Ellument’s drop-in space in Deep Ellum, one of the first such spaces for young gay Black men anywhere. He also founded the DFW Pride Movement, which added HIV and other workshops to Dallas Southern Pride’s weekend of Pride celebrations.
While studying at UTA from 2007-09, Jones became HIV-positive himself. But, he has said, he was determined that “I wasn’t going to be a victim.” He credits then-state Rep. Terry Hodge with talking to him about being who he is.
“I saw her fighting for our community,” Jones told Dallas Voice during his 2022 campaign, adding that he was determined to continue fighting for his own community.
After graduation, Jones moved to Washington, D.C., where he launched the National Black Justice Coalition’s first LGBTQ health and wellness initiative. He also served on the board of AIDS United, and in 2012, President Barack Obama recognized Jones’ work on a variety of projects, including the national HIV strategy.
Then in 2019, Jones once again returned to Dallas.
Elected
It’s a rare thing to see a freshman lawmaker get a bill passed in the Texas Legislature. But Jones passed multiple bills during his first session in office. Just as important, his presence in Austin gave his colleagues in the state House the chance to know someone infected with HIV and to begin learning about living with the virus.
By Jones submitting bills that got hearings, members of the Legislature gained an understanding of how they can help in the fight against AIDS, even if they didn’t vote for those measures to become law.
Committee assignments take into consideration a legislator’s interests and experience. Attorneys, for example, usually fill judicial committees. Because of his interest and openness about his HIV status, Jones was assigned to the Texas House Public Health Committee.
In the 40-plus years of the AIDS epidemic, Jones is the first member of the Texas House of Representatives to openly declare his HIV-positive status, and, as far as we know, he is the first member of any legislature in the country to be open about his HIV status.
For his openness and willingness to discuss his status, his colleagues voted him Freshman of the Year.
Some controversy
That doesn’t mean Jones hasn’t seen some controversy during his time in Austin.
When the various LGBTQ Chambers of Commerce from around the state gathered at the state Capitol for a day of pro-business lobbying, Jones introduced a resolution to welcome the groups. Passing resolutions welcoming various groups of Texans to the Capitol is routine and typically not a controversial matter.
But Jones’ resolution failed, sending the embarrassing message that four regional Chambers of Commerce were not welcome at the Texas Capitol.
But embarrassing for whom? For Jones, it was just a signal that he had more work to do. And with the statewide coverage the failure to pass received, it did more to publicize the message that the LGBTQ community in Texas is part of the success of the Texas business community at large than it did to signify those Chamber representatives should not have been in Austin.
A few weeks later, Jones introduced a resolution recognizing HIV Advocacy Day at the State Capitol. That passed nearly unanimously, with all but a few of the most extreme rightwing members of the House voting for it.
And a few weeks after that, Jones introduced and passed a resolution remembering AIDS Services of Dallas former CEO Don Maison, who died the previous year, followed by another resolution paying tribute to Abounding Prosperity founder and CEO Kirk Myers-Hill, who passed unexpectedly in April.
Had his colleagues learned that voting against Jones would backfire by bringing more publicity to his issues? Or had they learned from him that HIV was simply a public health issue that could be addressed with recognition and some common sense legislation? Either way, they learned something.
Jones surely has more work to do in Austin. But then, he never expected to accomplish everything in his first term.
One of Jones’ bills that didn’t pass was a common sense bill to include HIV testing in a standard STD panel of tests. Maybe that indicates he has more work to do among his colleagues, but maybe it just got lost in the ongoing school voucher fight that has resulted in Gov. Greg Abbott having called a record number of special sessions this year to get his pet issue approved.
Another bill that got lost in the shuffle was one that would save the state money by purchasing health plans for some people infected with HIV. It’s worked in other states, and it’s worked locally in Dallas County, where the county has funded insurance through a program administered by Resource Center that saves Parkland Hospital millions of dollars every year.
But politics isn’t always about actually saving money and doing good. Sometimes it’s about being spiteful and not helping certain people.
Jones understands that, and he continues to put himself out there as the state’s most prominent HIV advocate, someone willing to answer any questions from his peers if it will help end the HIV epidemic. He believes good legislation can be a major part of the solution, and in 2023, Venton Jones led the way toward that goal. ν
