Death of a Gay Hero

[InBangkok]

Not many readers will know the name Larry Kramer. In 1980 when gay rights were still in their infancy, the world was hit by the appearance of the fatal HIV virus. Groups of gay men in the USA suddenly fell ill with very unusual symptoms. Cure was not possible. All died. No one wanted to know about this illness which was first given the acronym GRID - gay related immune syndrome. The US CDC begged the Reagan administration for research funding but a gay plague was not a vote winner for a right-wing conservative administration. Their appeals fell on mostly deaf ears. Still, no one wanted to know.

 

In 1982 Larry Kramer published an article "1,112 and Counting". It referred to the number of gay men who had died up to that point. It started, "If this article does not rouse you to anger, fury, rage and action, gay men have no future on this earth." By then GRID had been renamed AIDS. The following year Kramer was interviewed on the US NBC Network. "How many friends have you lost to AIDS?" he was asked. He replied "20". The interviewer was clearly shocked. Then he spoke the words that Americans did not want to hear. "There's no question in my mind, if this were happening to you and the white, straight middle class American community it would have been attended to a long time ago."

 

Kramer became an outspoken AIDS activist, lecturing and writibg extensively about the pandemic in articles and plays. He helped open the world's door to what became the worst pandemic of the 20th century. Sadly Kramer died yesterday aged 84, the very day on which the USA announced 100,000 deaths from covid19. 

 

Dr. Anthony Fauci who has been on television almost daily over the last few months said, "This is a very, very sad day. It's the passing of a true icon."

 

 

. 

Edited May 28, 2020 by InBangkok
Additional paragraph

[passinthenight]

Excellent post and what a courageous man Larry was for the gay community back then.

 

RIP Larry.

[StockBottom]

Indeed a hero. Rest in Peace.

[doncoin]

I saw his play, A Normal Heart, with Eileen Barkin, Jim Parsons etc. years ago and the night I was there, during intermission, he was outside in the lobby talking to people. The play had me bawling like a baby in the end. My friend's mum who we saw the play with used to work with him back in the 80s during the AIDS pandemic and she was one of the first responders if you will and was an advocate for many years. She did say to us after the play that while the Normal Heart is semi-autobiographical, Larry did really have a big mouth and a lot of the things he did, and pushed to protect people from AIDS etc. would not have happened if it were not for him. His method while unorthodox, and many disagreed with him then, he what had to be done to get the attention of the authorities and pushed for changes. 

 

I always remember the last scene of the play when they projected on the stage the names of those who had died from the AIDS epidemic. It was moving and many in the audience were in tears. Having grown up in Singapore, I think we were largely sheltered from the harsh realities of what the AIDS pandemic was light in the early 80s. People like my friend's mum was one of the first responders, and she worked tirelessly with many AIDS patients back then and taught nursing specializing in that area for decades after. 

 

 

A French movie that came out recently had something to do with Larry Kramer as well and traced the Act Up (which he founded after his split from GMHC) in France. 

 

 

 

 

[Steve5380]

Thank you @InBangkok, @doncoin for bringing attention to this sad past and the people who fought there valiantly. 

 

This should give an example of how social progress is made,  not by waiting that "the government" or "society" welcomes the progress with open arms.

Larry Kramer was married to his partner David Webster and they lived together from 1991 until Larry's death yesterday.  Another example of this Hero:  we gays can find long lasting relationships of true love.

 

I watched the other day an old DVD in my collection,  "Paragraph 175" about the persecution of gays in Nazi Germany,  and this left me traumatized with another view of the ugly Reality besides the 100,000 victims of covid-19 mark in my country.  

 

[mith]

oh lord... 

 

i reaching teens and just discovering gay sex during the AIDS pandemics! it was scary times, especially for a local teen without guidance and support.

 

i bought many books to read in secret, and Mr Kramer's THE NORMAL HEART was one of the most poignant! i still have that copy NOW!

[InBangkok]

Unfortunately that vdo of The Normal Heart cannot be viewed in Thailand. Here is one very moving scene from the movie with Julia Roberts magnifcently playing the role of the real-life Dr.Emma Brookner. The paraplegic Dr. Brookner worked in New York and had noticed a lot of gay men suffering the effects of AIDS. In this scene she peresents the results of her research findings. Having  begged the government for more research funding, she is turned down. It displays passionately how the US government totally failed to listen to so many of the researchers and permitted AIDS to become a disastrous pandemic. 

 

 

[Steve5380]

17 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

Unfortunately that vdo of The Normal Heart cannot be viewed in Thailand. Here is one very moving scene from the movie with Julia Roberts magnifcently playing the role of the real-life Dr.Emma Brookner. The paraplegic Dr. Brookner worked in New York and had noticed a lot of gay men suffering the effects of AIDS. In this scene she peresents the results of her research findings. Having  begged the government for more research funding, she is turned down. It displays passionately how the US government totally failed to listen to so many of the researchers and permitted AIDS to become a disastrous pandemic. 

 

 

Julia Roberts is great.  This makes one's blood boil!  

[wilfgene]

17 minutes ago, InBangkok said:

 It displays passionately how the US government totally failed to listen to so many of the researchers and permitted AIDS to become a disastrous pandemic.

1. Thanks for the thread.  Too busy getting laid and forget, then.

2. As well as reaffirm "The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history".

3. Appreciate the commotion raised across the Pacific, instead. 

[wilfgene]

11 minutes ago, Steve5380 said:

Julia Roberts is great.  This makes one's blood boil!  

More mesmerized with Aiden Quinn and D.W Moffatt in "An Early Frost", bedazzled by Ben Gazzara's role, then. 

Edited May 29, 2020 by wilfgene

[doncoin]

Ha! Just found the video trailer of the Broadway revival I saw.

 

 

 

I forgot Ellen Barkin won a Tony for the role. 

 

 

Edited May 29, 2020 by doncoin

[HC-B]

The first gay play that I’ve read and a gripping one too — even now, I still remember that scene where a carton of milk was thrown and burst all over the floor, a fitting symbol of spilled white American blood, tainted and knocked down and trodden.