Members of the LGBTQ+ community are calling a new stamp featuring former first lady Nancy Reagan a “slap in the face,” as it was unveiled at the beginning of Pride month and because of the Reagan administration’s role in the AIDS crisis of the 1980s.
“I think it just brings up just this overwhelming, underlying grief that a lot of us have been having,” said Sarah Epperson, a queer artist and illustrator who focuses on social justice issues and politics. “Not only did we lose an entire generation of our elders through the AIDS crisis in the ’80s — you know, stories that we’ll never have, people that we’ll never have. … But also we lost so, so many people. There would have been so many more of us had we not lost so many of them.”
The stamp features Reagan’s official White House portrait from 1987 by artist Aaron Shikler. Reagan was born on July 6, 1921, and the commemorative Forever stamp is meant to celebrate the centennial of her birth, which was last year but whose celebration was delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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