Gay History: Today's Birthday - Larry Kramer

Sitting on the messy floor of my den is a book whose cover shouts loud and clear "Faggots!" I've only been given it recently, and that's why it remains unread, but I promise to read it, for the shear historic and sarcastic content, context, and most importantly, it's author, who celebrates his birthday today. It is, of course, none other than Larry Kramer.

Kramer was born in 1935 to a professional family in Bridgeport, Connecticut. After receiving his B.A. from Yale in 1957, he joined the Army for a year. When he got out of the military, he entered the entertainment industry, working first for the William Morris Agency and then for Columbia Pictures. His love of words led him to his first screenplay for the 1969 movie adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's Women in Love, for which he also co-produced, and received an Academy Award nomination.

According to Gregory Bredbeck, Associate Professor of English at the University of California, Riverside, "Kramer gained prominence in the world of gay writing in 1978, when his novel Faggots was published. A scathing satire of the gay circuit in Manhattan and on Fire Island, the novel traces the life and neuroses of Fred Lemish, a middle-aged Jewish gay man looking for love in a world that only wants to have sex. The world of fast-lane gay New York becomes the real subject of the book, and Kramer's narrative focuses on the drug and alcohol abuse, the sado-masochism and the promiscuity that he sees as both typical and reprehensible."

Spurned on by the fact that the media and government* were paying little attention to the "Gay Cancer" that was beginning to plague gay men, and which would later be known as AIDS, Kramer co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York in 1981. As Bredbeck notes, "Disenchanted with what he perceived to be the lethal dangers of an uncontrollable AIDS bureaucracy, he founded AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1988." Though non-violent, the organization led very provocative protests, doing anything to draw attention to the scurge. Their tactics were seen as distasteful by many, including within the gay community, but their loud voices could not be ignored, and through their efforts, attention started to be paid. Kramer was there, in the front lines, leading the way.

Larry Kramer, it is said, will be best remembered as the man who almost single-handedly began the gay political response to AIDS in America, launching a political activism within the gay community that to this day is reflected in other organizations like the Gay and Lesbian Task Force, HRC, LAMBDA Legal, and many others.

Happy Birthday, Larry!!!

*By the time President Reagan even mentioned AIDS, 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with the disease and 20,849 had already died.