As Kramer agitated in the field, the suits in establishment organizations lobbied and made nice. The social media memorials for Kramer have settled around his righteous anger, but he had anger for a purpose: widespread government action to stop the HIV/AIDS crisis. He cried out for queer culture not to sputter out years before we were born. The gay teens unabashedly on TikTok posting publicly about high school romances and taking it up the ass (however trite) get to do so because of Kramer. Kramer’s legacy is in each young gay person who gets to dance, to fuck and to see a world with fewer limitations. Larry Let Me Be Gay in a Way I Never Could Over the years, Kramer remained a distant but inextricable link to GMHC. Later, after the GMHC became a formal, tax-exempt entity, Kramer left and founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power ( ACT UP), a grassroots political group focused on direct action and protest. The hotline received over 100 calls the first night. GMHC initially operated as a volunteer-run crisis-counseling hotline it would later run in first executive director Rodger McFarlane’s home. Kramer’s roman à clef The Normal Heart chronicles his involvement with the organization. It was six months after the New York Times finally reported on a “gay cancer.” In 1982, Kramer founded the Gay Men’s Health Crisis at home alongside five other AIDS activists. Kramer’s Organization Is as Vital as Ever He was a revolutionary who challenged the status quo. He saved the lives of thousands of ppl affected by HIV/AIDS. He was an extraordinary activist & inspiration to us all.
We mourn the loss of our co-founder & hero Larry Kramer. Not the least of them is how we gay people fuck.