44 | JUNE 4 • 2020
L
arry Kramer, one of the
most important figures
in the history of LGBTQ
activism and a writer, died May
27, 2020.
Kramer, who wrote the
semi-autobiographical play A
Normal Heart, died in Manhattan
of pneumonia, his husband,
David Webster, confirmed to the
New York Times. He was 84.
He had undergone a liver
transplant after contracting liver
disease and was infected with
HIV
, the virus that can turn into
AIDS.
Kramer was a co-founder of
the Gay Men’
s Health Crisis, now
one of the biggest AIDS service
organizations in the world, but
was forced out because of his
outspokenness and went on to
found the AIDS Coalition to
Unleash Power, or ACT UP
, a
more militant group that took
to the streets to protest for more
AIDS drugs research and an end
to discrimination against gay men
and lesbians.
His worldview was shaped by
his Jewish identity, the Jewish
Telegraphic Agency wrote in
2016.
“In a way, like a lot of Jewish
men of Larry’
s generation, the
Holocaust is a defining historical
moment, and what happened in
the early 1980s with AIDS felt,
and was, in fact, holocaustal to
Larry,
” Tony Kushner said in
2005.
Kramer and Dr. Anthony
Fauci, director of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, crossed paths as the
AIDS crisis continued to kill gay
men, with Kramer calling him
a killer. Fauci told the New York
Times that Kramer spurred him
to break through the slow federal
bureaucracy that held up AIDS
research. They later became
friends, according to the report.
In March, Kramer told a Times
reporter that he emailed Fauci
to tell him he was sorry for how
he is being treated as the public
face of the efforts to combat the
coronavirus.
Kramer wrote books, plays
and screenplays, many with gay
themes and some autobiographi-
cal. He was a Pulitzer Prize final-
ist for his play The Destiny of Me,
which picks up where The Normal
Heart leaves off. His book, Reports
for the Holocaust: The Making of an
AIDS Activist, is a collection of
his essays on AIDS activism and
LGBT civil rights.
In the weeks before his death,
Kramer had started to write a
play in response to the COVID-
19 outbreak.
He was a Yale University grad-
uate and enlisted in the Army.
He began working for Columbia
Pictures in the early 1960s
Soul
of blessed memory
Prominent AIDS Activist
Larry Kramer Dies at 84
MARCY OSTER JTA
CATHERINE MCGANN/GETTY IMAGES
American writer and
gay rights activist Larry
Kramer poses for a
portrait at the open door
of his New York City
apartment, April 1993.