He Kills Me

Your Mirror: Portraits from the ICP Collection
Section: Appropriation
As the AIDS epidemic spread, activists criticized the Reagan administration for ineffectively responding to the disease. In particular, they were concerned that the administration was underfunding AIDS research and obstructing prevention efforts by opposing sex education. These concerns were exacerbated by Reagan's public silence about the disease until 1987, when he made his first speech on the subject. Later that year, Reagan yielded to pressure from Congress and organized the Presidential Commission on the HIV Epidemic. However, scientists and AIDS activists were skeptical of the recommendations the commission's appointed members would provide to the President due to their lack of expertise. For the third in a series of demonstrations that ACT UP organized against the commission, Donald Moffett made this poster of Reagan, with words that concisely communicated the group's thoughts about the President's effect on AIDS patients.