Richard Starley, 2016

File — Box: 2, Folder: 7

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

Richard Starley was born in Brooklyn, New York. His father’s family, LDS pioneers, had left England and settled in Fillmore, Utah. After meeting and marrying, Starley’s parents decided to move from New York to Fillmore. Starley, though, was raised in downtown Salt Lake City. He describes being Catholic in majority LDS Salt Lake City. When Starley was in high school, his family moved to Magna, Utah. In Magna, Starley developed a group of friends, all of whom turned out to be gay. Though they didn’t know they were gay at the time, they all thought of themselves as different and were called “sissies” by other kids. As they got older, they started to go to gay bars in Salt Lake City and started to develop a sense of community. During the early ’80s, Starley was living in San Francisco and started to hear about a new disease that was killing mostly gay men. While he was living there, one of his friends died of the disease. Starley decided to move back to Salt Lake City. He found out the disease was now affecting gay men and Utah and that there was now a group called AIDS Project Utah. He reached out to them and became a volunteer with the organization. Starley describes his role and his responsibilities at AIDS Project Utah. He talks about the kinds of calls he would receive on the AIDS hotline. Starley also explains the kinds of education AIDS Project Utah provided to the community. Starley also developed and conducted trainings for workplaces who wanted to educate their employees about HIV/AIDS. He talks about the struggles and the stigma people with HIV had to face in a state that is mostly LDS and conservative. Starley tells stories about friends getting sick and he describes the funerals he went to for his friends who died of AIDS. Starley also talks about how the HIV/AIDS epidemic has evolved over the years and how it has changed the gay community and changed Utah.
Interviewed by Elizabeth Clement.

Dates

2016

Conditions Governing Access

Twenty-four hour advanced notice encouraged. Materials must be used on-site. Access to parts of this collection may be restricted under provisions of state or federal law.