Larry Kramer

Larry Kramer was an American playwright, author, film producer and LGBTQ rights activist. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, Kramer attended Yale University and, after a troubled start, graduated with a degree in English. After a brief spell in the US Army Reserve, Kramer began working as a script writer with Columbia Pictures and achieved his first Academy Award nomination with his adaptation of D.H. Lawrence’s Women in Love (1969). He made an early foray into writing for the stage, with his 1973 play Sissie’s Scrapbook (later reworked as Four Friends) but the play’s run was cut short by the producer despite favorable reviews.

Kramer was openly gay and integrated homosexual themes into his work. His 1978 novel Faggots was considered so provocative and controversial in its portrayal of New York’s homosexual community that it was banned at the only LGBT bookshop in the city. Kramer’s controversial and uncensored style of writing proved to be a valuable tool during the growing AIDS crisis of the 1980s. He became frustrated by the lack of understanding on how HIV was spread and was actively involved with the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). However, he was kicked out for publishing his provocative essay "1,112 and Counting" (1983), which was intended to frighten gay men into activism by focusing on the spread of the disease and the lack of government response. Kramer then became involved in the grassroots organization AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) and he campaigned militantly for social and legal equality for the LGBTQ society for the rest of his life.

Kramer’s continuing frustration with the government’s indifference towards the AIDS crisis and the homosexual community crossed over into his work for the stage. His play The Normal Heart (1985) was one of the first plays to directly address AIDS and became the longest-running play ever staged at the Public Theater. Its sequel The Destiny of Me (1992) was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and received the Lortel Award for Outstanding Play of the Year. In 1988, he wrote Just Say No, a Play About a Farce, which attacked Ronald Reagan’s administration and its inertia towards the AIDS crisis.

Kramer lived with HIV for much of his adult life and died of pneumonia in 2020, aged 84.