In the early eighties he was one of the first activists to take on the deadly dimension of the new AIDS disease saw coming, until the nineties he had an impact on US health policy. Now activist, artist and playwright Larry Kramer died at 84.
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Kramer, born in Connecticut in 1935, attended Yale elite university and then worked in the film industry: his adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s novel “Loving Women” was nominated for an Oscar in 1969.
He became best known as a public figure through his vocal fight against AIDS. In the magazines of the gay scene around the eighties he wrote: “Our continued existence as gay men on this earth is at stake. If we don’t fight for our lives, we will die.” His autobiographical play “The Normal Heart” celebrated its premiere in 1985, in which the AIDS crisis in New York is told from the perspective of a gay author; the piece inspired crowds to protest.
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In 1987, Kramer founded the “Aids Coalition to Unleash Power” (ACT UP), a protest movement that also used its actions to draw attention to the AIDS crisis: With so-called “Die-Ins”, around hundreds of people paralyzed the traffic in Manhattan by lay motionless on the floor.
Uncomfortable to the end
Kramer, who was also controversial in the LGBTQ scene – partly because his approach to sexuality was more activist and less concerned with theoretical approaches to social power relationships – remained angry and uncomfortable until the end of his life. He recalled his movement “Act Up” ambiguously in a conversation with “taz” 2006. He complained of a lack of solidarity between the gay and lesbian movement: “People don’t fight, I have no idea why not. At the height of AIDS when we died like flies, it could not have been more than ten thousand people in a country of who knows five, six, seven million. “
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In 2014 “The Normal Heart” was adapted as a television film, the film with Julia Roberts and Mark Ruffalo won an Emmy. One of his most recent projects was a two-part chronicle on the history of homosexuals in the United States. He said, “I think it’s important that we know our story – the story of how we were treated badly and how hard we had to fight to get what we deserve: equality.” Now Kramer has died at the age of 84.
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