ACTUP AIDSGATE Ronald Reagan

Queer design is an important part of graphic design history that challenges traditional ideas of what design should be. These works matter because they show identity, individuality, and resistance to society’s expectations. Documenting them helps expand the range of people represented in the world of art and shows how design can reflect personal stories, social change, and different ways of thinking. 

This print, designed by the Silence = Death Project, a consciousness-raising and advocacy group founded in 1987 in response to the AIDS epidemic, is among the most recognizable political posters of the twentieth century. Using fluorescent colors and the powerful visual language of advertising, it features an image of then-President Ronald Reagan with glowing pink eyes and the phrase "AIDSGATE," a reference to his negligence in responding to the growing crisis. Though the first cases of AIDS were identified in 1981, Reagan would not publicly acknowledge the disease until four years later; by that time, more than 12,000 people had died. The bottom of the poster indicts Reagan for his inaction, and calls attention to the disproportionate number of women and people of color affected by the virus: "This Political Scandal Must be Investigated! 54% of people with AIDS in NYC are Black or Hispanic… AIDS is the No. 1 killer of women between the ages of 24 and 29 in NYC… By 1991, more people will have died of AIDS than in the entire Vietnam War…What is Reagan’s real policy on AIDS? Genocide of all Non-Whites, Non-males and Non-heterosexuals?… SILENCE = DEATH."