During the AIDS crisis, the Catholic Church—particularly under New York’s Cardinal John O’Connor—vocally opposed condom use, abortion, and gay rights. O’Connor condemned safer-sex education in schools and blocked condom distribution in city hospitals, aligning with policies that, activists argued, directly endangered lives. This ACT UP poster condemns the Catholic Church’s opposition to condoms during the AIDS crisis. Its title plays on the double meaning of “scumbag”—both a slang term for a condom and an insult—underscoring the activists’ refusal to champion politeness over survival. Held on December 10, 1989, at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York City, Stop the Church was a major ACT UP protest that targeted the Catholic Church’s opposition to condom use, abortion rights, and gay rights during the AIDS crisis. More than 4,500 protesters participated and more than 100 were arrested, including activists who disrupted the mass to draw attention to church policies they insisted were contributing to preventable AIDS deaths. This action marked a turning point in ACT UP’s visibility and ability to create public controversy, generating national media coverage and backlash. It also exposed internal tensions within the movement around strategy, religious respect, and the use of disruption in sacred spaces. Despite criticism, the protest succeeded in reframing debates over religious influence on public health policy and underscored the urgent stakes of AIDS activism in the face of institutional power. In the weeks that followed, attendance at ACT UP meetings surged as the protest attracted new members galvanized by its boldness and visibility.