Iconic gay activist Larry Kramer passes away at 84
Playwright and gay HIV activist Larry Kramer passed away at age 84. According to the New York Times, he died of pneumonia early this morning.
Kramer was a legendary activist who co-founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, an organization devoted to helping people living with HIV and AIDS. He was later kicked out of the organization for his confrontational style.
Susan Sontag once called Kramer “one of America’s most valuable troublemakers” for his actions that targeted Wall Street, public health offices, and the Catholic Church.
He grew frustrated with what he saw as gay men’s apathy towards the HIV pandemic as well as the government’s inept response. In 1987 he helped co-found ACT-UP, a direct action organization focused on changing the public health reaction to HIV and public perception of people living with the virus.
In 1988, Kramer called Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci a “killer” and “an incompetent idiot” for his reaction to HIV.
“Once you got past the rhetoric, you found that Larry Kramer made a lot of sense, and that he had a heart of gold,” Fauci said. He said that Kramer played an “essential” role in getting the FDA to make the process for approving new drugs faster.
He was the author of many works, including the 1978 novel Faggots and The Normal Heart, a 1985 play about the early years of the AIDS crisis.
Kramer was working on another play before his death, An Army of Lovers Must Not Die, which was partly about the coronavirus pandemic.
“It’s about gay people having to live through three plagues,” he told the Times in a recent interview. The three plagues were HIV, COVID-19, and aging.
ACT UP NY tweeted that Kramer’s “rage helped inspire a movement.”
JB Comments: There are many on the LGBTQ scene who just take - expect - take - demand - want - expect - take and very VERY rarely give / put anything back. They take and they take and they expect it to always be that way and when someone says ' NO WAY' and stops them, they act all hurt anbd upset and offended and act the victim, when the truth is, thay are not the victim at all, they are in fact the abuser, expecting everything to just be presented on a plate for them with absolutely no input from them at all.
Selfish people abound. Thoughtless people are everywhere.
Inconsiderate people do not get it.
They act all hurt and offended when someone stands up top them and very few change theoir ways as they are set in stone.
Many on the LGBTQ scene will not have even heard of this man and unaware how much LGBTQ Rights they enjoy today BECAUSE of people like Larry Kramer and we have a lot to be thankful to people like him - who have stood up against the bullies, the bigots, the homophobe and while there will always be those on the LGBTQ scene who will offer fuck all while complaining and finding fault with those who do, and there will always be the assholes who take take take and put nothing back and will disrespect those who have done the work and changed laws and opinions, and they will be overlooked and forgotten about - unless aryicles and editporials like thios remind people of what some of us have been through in support of changing laws to offer LGBTQ a better future.
