Alexis Marie Rivera

Alexis Rivera was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, and began working doing street outreach to transgender women as a teen.{{cite web|url=http://www.friendsresearch.org/fcc_research_projects.htm|title=Enhancing Linkages to and Retention in HIV Primary Care for Transgender Women of Color (lay title: The Alexis Project)|website=Friends Research Institute|access-date=2017-04-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170519064123/http://www.friendsresearch.org/fcc_research_projects.htm|archive-date=2017-05-19|url-status=dead}} When she was 18, she began to transition.{{Cite news|url=https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-138141210.html|title=Learn to recognize gender identity disorder|last=Brunk|first=Doug|date=October 2005|work=Pediatric News|access-date=May 3, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116054058/https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-138141210.html|archive-date=2018-11-16|url-status=dead |via=HighBeam Research}} She was hired at Children's Hospital Los Angeles (CHLA) initially as a general health educator, but began increasingly to focus on transgender youth who came to CHLA's Adolescent Medicine division. As a young woman, Rivera was also the first winner of Los Angeles long running Quest transgender advocacy pageant in 2002.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_8pQKLjU3g&t=3s|title=Quest 2012 - Remembering Alexis Rivera|date=January 11, 2013|publisher=APAIT (Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team)|via=YouTube}} Rivera helped build and grow the US's first transgender youth services program at CHLA from 1999 to 2007. She was also helped coordinate efforts to establish a network of social services for transgender people in Los Angeles, serving as a commissioner of the Los Angeles County HIV/AIDS Commission, a chair of the Transgender Services Provider Network, and a founding board member of FTM Alliance of Los Angeles (later Gender Justice LA), the first transgender led non profit organization in the region.

In 2007, Rivera joined the Transgender Law Center as a Policy Advocate.{{cite web|url=http://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2074|title=New TLC leaders aim to widen agency's reach|website=The Bay Area Reporter|first=Heather|last=Cassell|date=August 9, 2007|access-date=April 24, 2017|archive-date=July 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731080430/https://www.ebar.com/news/article.php?sec=news&article=2074|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|last1=Heffernan|first1=Dani|title=GLAAD Mourns Transgender Advocate and HIV/AIDS Activist Alexis Rivera|url=http://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-mourns-transgender-advocate-and-hivaids-activist-alexis-rivera|website=GLAAD|accessdate=May 8, 2017|date=April 3, 2012|archive-date=September 24, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924092553/https://www.glaad.org/blog/glaad-mourns-transgender-advocate-and-hivaids-activist-alexis-rivera|url-status=dead}} In this position, Rivera led the organizations statewide Health Care Access Project, which helped open clinics serving transgender people all over California. RIvera also helped train community members for California's first statewide Transgender Advocacy Day in 2010.{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/30/alexis-rivera-transgender-rights-advocate-death_n_1392589.html|title=Alexis Rivera Dead: Transgender Rights Advocate Dies In California|date=March 30, 2012|publisher=Huffington Post}}

Rivera died on March 28, 2012, at the age of 34, from complications related to HIV/AIDS.{{cite news|title=Alexis Rivera, Transgender Rights Advocate, Dies At 34|url=http://www.ontopmag.com/article/11391/Alexis_Rivera_Transgender_Rights_Advocate_Dies_At_34|work=On Top Magazine|date=March 30, 2012|language=en}}

After her death, Rivera was memorialized in a mural in Clarion Alley in the Mission District, San Francisco.{{cite web|url=http://48hills.org/sfbgarchive/2012/10/24/trans-activists-honored-clarion-alley-mural/?_sf_s=alexis%20rivera|title=Trans activists honored in Clarion Alley mural|first=Matt|last=Fisher|date=October 24, 2012|website=48hills.org}}{{Dead link|date=May 2025 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} In Los Angeles, the transgender pride festival has named its award recognizing transgender advocates the "Alexis Rivera Trailblazer Award".{{cite web|url=http://sdgln.com/entertainmentl/2013/06/21/film-festival-trans-pride-los-angeles-weekend|title=Film fest highlights Trans Pride Los Angeles weekend|first=Dani|last=Heffernan|work=San Diego Gay and Lesbian News |date=June 21, 2013}}{{cite web|url=https://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/1028|title=Michelle Enfield Honored With Alexis Rivera Trailblazer Award|website=Transgender Law Center|date=June 22, 2012|access-date=April 24, 2017|archive-date=July 31, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190731074916/https://transgenderlawcenter.org/archives/1028|url-status=dead}} The Alexis Project, a support network and service for HIV-infected trans women of color, was named after Rivera.{{cite web|last1=Watson|first1=Caroline|title=If You Build It They Will Come|url=https://www.hiveonline.org/if-you-build-it-they-will-come/|website=HIVE|publisher=UCSF|accessdate=May 8, 2017|date=April 23, 2015|archive-date=April 29, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170429032321/https://www.hiveonline.org/if-you-build-it-they-will-come/|url-status=dead}} The Alexis Rivera Courage-in-Leadership award, given by the APAIT Health Center in Los Angeles, was also named after Rivera.{{cite web|title=Quest Woman of the Year 2013|url=http://apaitonline.org/quest-woman-of-the-year-2013/|website=APAIT|accessdate=May 8, 2017|date=December 15, 2012}}

{{Reflist|30em}}

• [https://player.vimeo.com/video/39708912 Alexis Rivera on Community]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2g0im6sLMkU Alexis Rivera speaking at the 2007 Transgender Leadership Summer, 2012]

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Category:1977 births

Category:2012 deaths

Category:American LGBTQ rights activists

Category:American transgender women

Category:Transgender rights activists

Category:Activists from Los Angeles

Category:LGBTQ people from California

Category:21st-century American LGBTQ people