Larry Kramer

by Jason Villemez

A talented screenwriter, playwright, and staunch AIDS activist; Larry Kramer has made contributions to battling the epidemic that transcend mere words on paper.  

Born in 1935, Kramer was already an established writer when the first infections spread throughout America.  His screenplay adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love received an Academy Award nomination in 1970, and his 1978 novel Faggots became a best seller, trumping heated criticism over its negative portrayals of homosexuals. 

Just three years after Faggots’ release, the first AIDS cases hit New York, and Kramer immediately began urging action to stop the spread of the disease and to help those already devastated.  

He co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, which provided much-needed care and support to gay men with the disease, many of whom had been rejected by hospitals and shunned by others in the community.  

What began as a small gathering in Kramer’s apartment, GMHC boasts a huge list of breakthroughs for AIDS support, including the first AIDS hotline, which received 100 calls its first night, the first AIDS Walk, with 4500 walkers raising $710,000, and the first million-dollar fundraiser, an art auction held at Sotheby’s.  

Despite the group’s success, Kramer left his position at GMHC in 1983 due to its perceived lack of political presence.  

He realized his growing political desires in 1987, co-founding the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP), which continues today in reduced numbers.  

ACT UP became known for its militant protests and civil disobedience, including famed disruptions on Wall Street, at the New York City General Post Office and at the National Institutes of Health, as well as a brief takeover of the CBS Evening News in 1991.  

Though the groups he established are responsible for some of Kramer’s fame, he continued his playwriting, touching upon his own experiences as a gay man during the AIDS crisis in 1986’s The Normal Heart, one of the most acclaimed works of the AIDS era and of Kramer’s career.  

Regardless of whether his political or cultural discourse dominates his body of work, Kramer will be remembered as one of the earliest and most influential AIDS activists.  

He currently lives in New York and Connecticut with his partner. 

©365Gay.com 2006