University Honors

This research paper examines the history of grassroots LGBTQ+ activism in Riverside,California during the AIDS epidemic in the 1980s and 1990s. Specifically, this research strives toanswer the question of how Riverside’s LGBTQ+ community survived and persisted in theconservative environment of the Inland Empire during the deadly AIDS epidemic. To investigatethis question, this paper draws on oral histories with local LGBTQ+ community leaders from “APeople’s History of the IE” digital archive, archival materials in the Connie Confer and KayBerryhill Smith LGBT activism collection at the UC Riverside library, and secondary sourcesfrom scholars examining the AIDS epidemic within the United States. Findings include localcommunity history and the activism of the Inland AIDS Project as well as the RiversideCoalition Against Discrimination in battling to defend Riverside’s 1987 AIDSAnti-Discrimination Ordinance. This paper also builds on knowledge of LGBTQ+ communityactivism in the fields of both public history and gender and sexuality studies. These findings areof importance today as they reveal the historical contingencies behind successful community-ledgrassroots organizing in traditionally conservative and hostile locales as well as providinghistorical context of potential value to today’s LGBTQ+ community in Riverside.