Michael Blake Personal Collection

1987

A flyer promotes “Blue Jeans Day” in February to honor gays and lesbians killed in Nazi concentration camps during the 1930s and 1940s.

Michael Blake Personal Collection

October: A week in the life of Iowa City gay activist Michael Blake includes workshops, a film, volunteer training, parties, and a memorial service. (“Mayflower” is a dormitory; “IPBN” is the Iowa Public Broadcasting Network.)

Records of the GLBTAU, University of Iowa Archives

Safer sex workshop announcement.

More than 100 area residents join the second March on Washington, D.C., for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Dubuque Telegraph-Herald

1988

A gay rights rally in Dubuque in 1988 attracts participants from Iowa City, ninety miles away.

On campus, Gay People’s Union becomes the Lesbian and Gay People’s Union. The following year it is renamed again, as Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual People’s Union.

Papers of Nancy ‘Rusty’ Barceló, Iowa Women’s Archives

1989

The Women Against Racism Committee, formed in the early 1980s, holds a national conference in Iowa City, “Parallels and Intersections: Racism and Other Forms of Oppression.” The conference addresses a wide range of issues; lesbians play a leading role in the planning and the program.

Women’s Resource and Action Center Facebook Web site

Gays, lesbians and bisexuals protest the university’s decision to allow an anti-gay newspaper, The Campus Review, to have a display in the Iowa Memorial Union denigrating gays and promoting violence.

Celebrating pride on the Pentacrest lawn of the University of Iowa, ca. 1989.