Judy Ornelas Sisneros was a member of ACT UP Los Angeles from mid-May 1990 to January 1995. She was a member of the Women’s Caucus, joining during the first meeting on June 3, 1990. In spring of 1991 she co-facilitated the Agitating & Legal Committee whose major action was the AIDSphobia in Hollywood campaign. From 1991 through 1993 she was one of three ACT UP Los Angeles representatives to the national umbrella ACT UP Network. During her participation in ACT UP LA she traveled to multiple cities for actions and meetings: Atlanta, San Francisco, Washington D.C., Dallas, St. Louis, Sacramento and Philadelphia. She was arrested six times in civil disobedience actions in three different states and in D.C. Sisneros was part the National ACT UP Women’s Caucus that co-organized the National Dyke March on the eve of the 1993 National LGBT March on Washington. This march kickstarted a wave of dyke marches throughout the U.S. that continues to this day. In 2000 she curated an exhibit of ACT UP LA graphics and photos called Loud, Proud and Pissed at the Highways Gallery2 in Santa Monica. Much later, in 2017 she co-curated the exhibit Lesbians to Watch Out For: ‘90s Queer LA Activism at Plummer Park in West Hollywood.

Helene Schpak attended her first ACT UP LA meeting in early 1988 and was actively involved into the mid 1990’s. Helene worked alongside ACT UP LA principal co-founder Mark Kostopoulos in designing and organizing the majority of ACT UP’s protests and actions until his death from AIDS in 1992. She then continued this work in the organization until her departure from the group. Helene worked with most of the committees in ACT UP but was central to the Agitating & Legal Committee. She facilitated many meetings, helping to set goals, strategies and agendas. She also organized legal support for ACT UP protests and lead civil disobedience trainings. Along with ACT UP LA, Helene worked with Clinic Defense, SANOE Stop the Rose Parade action, Choice or Death, created several covert groups whose actions, although not sanctioned by ACT UP LA, generally involved ACT UP LA members and was an instrumental figure in most of ACT UP LA’s actions around the country. Additionally, she was involved in the organizing of the first National Dyke March in D.C. 

Jordan Peimer joined ACT UP in March of 1988 and was a member until the Spring of 1993. He participated in numerous actions including two overnight vigils at County USC Hospital, protests at Frontera Prison, Federal Buildings in Westwood and Downtown Los Angeles and visits to many homophobic and AIDSphobic politician’s homes including those of Supervisor Pete Schabarum and Governor Deukmejian. While in ACT UP he helped develop protest graphics and other ephemera in conjunction with the artists collective Critical Mass which he formed with the late Joshua Patrick Wells. He also helped form the performance collectives ATTACK (Artists Take The Action In Cultural Krisis) which created the “Art Criminal Chain Gang” to protest the attacks on the “NEA Four”. He was also a member of R.E.D. (Radical Exterior Decorators) an arts protest collective. He was arrested six or seven times for civil disobedience. Peimer helped develop a number of successful and controversial fundraising events for ACT UP and Highways Performance Space (where he would eventually become Co-Artistic Director). These fundraisers included Naked City, Trouble and Highways is Burning. Each one of these events raised more than $10,000 for each organization.