“Please don’t divorce my daddies!” reads one sign among the many multicolored banners that plaster the paint-chipped walls inside the Salinas Center for Change, where a full house of about 75 people gather to rally for equality.

“I’ve wanted my whole life to see a rooms full of all people – gay, straight, black, white, young and old – together [for change],” says Cleve Jones, an AIDS and LGBT activist who spoke about both last week.

As a teenager, Jones became a close friend and aide to openly gay San Francisco Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was portrayed by Sean Penn in Gus Van Sant’s 2008 biopic Milk. Emile Hirsch played Jones.

Jones says the biggest challenge facing equality movements nowadays is making activism productive – an ethic he learned from Milk’s campaigns.

“If you think you’re going to win [political races] by airtime or virtual petitions, you’re wrong,” he says. “We have to take the fight out to the people. All of you have to take to the streets, and every morning you have to seek out opportunities for change.”

This type of grassroots activism further inspired De’Lante Jones, a teledramatic arts and technology major at CSU Monterey Bay who is also a member of Out and About, a LGBT campus club.

“I don’t think there’s much of a community here,” he says. “It’s not level of equality I would like to see in the county, but Cleve’s speech really empowered me.”

The club’s president, Christina Molthen, also has hope for the future.

“I see the potential for marriage equality here,” she says. “We need to share our stories with people. The more I come out to people and show that I’m no different, the more people are receptive to understanding that the LGBT community is not separate, but the same as everyone else.”