Larry Kramer has died
May 27, 2020 5:45 PM Subscribe
Larry Kramer, AIDS activist, co-founder of ACTUP and The Gay Men's Health Crisis, playwright of The Normal Heart, has died at 84 (NYT) Obituaries are plentiful on the web, and tributes on Twitter.
I imagine that MeFites will fill this page up with links.
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I imagine that MeFites will fill this page up with links.
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posted by Blue Jello Elf at 5:51 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 5:51 PM on May 27, 2020
I saw The Normal Heart in central (bible belt) Pennsylvania while in college in the 1980s. I was a baby dyke, and in pre-internet days felt helplessly far away from the crux of the AIDS crisis. We knew about it, but our little group knew only one man who had it. We wanted to do something about it, but didn't know how. The idea that Penn State's theatre troupe mounted the production (kiss and all) was an incredibly brave act. That one play connected us when nothing else could.
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 5:54 PM on May 27, 2020 [14 favorites]
posted by obliquity of the ecliptic at 5:54 PM on May 27, 2020 [14 favorites]
i was discussing earlier how enraging that nyt obit is, focusing on how he was “contentious” and “argumentative” and “confrontational,” as if those were bad things, and not critical aspects of how he mobilized an entire generation to help save a tiny fraction of that generation of gay men from a plague that the government actively mocked and encouraged once it finally even acknowledged it. he weaponized rage on behalf of the queer community, and no matter how problematic he was, it was also a fucking gift to the world.
i am so deeply thankful to have grown up with the example of his righteous fury, and i strive to channel righteous fury against injustice in my own life.
posted by amelioration at 5:55 PM on May 27, 2020 [64 favorites]
i am so deeply thankful to have grown up with the example of his righteous fury, and i strive to channel righteous fury against injustice in my own life.
posted by amelioration at 5:55 PM on May 27, 2020 [64 favorites]
amelioration - Not just "confrontational" but "abusive" in the initial post before they changed it. I share your gratitude for his righteous fury, and it's fitting that with his obituary comes the reminder of exactly whose discomfort remains precious in the eyes of the establishment - fuel for my fire.
posted by northernish at 6:01 PM on May 27, 2020 [19 favorites]
posted by northernish at 6:01 PM on May 27, 2020 [19 favorites]
He was one of the greatest people of the 20th century. Rest in power.
posted by holborne at 6:12 PM on May 27, 2020 [9 favorites]
posted by holborne at 6:12 PM on May 27, 2020 [9 favorites]
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I will always be in awe of this protest. Larry understood the values the Church is supposed to embody—radical love, the sanctity and equality of every human life, fearlessness and selflessness in fighting for what’s right—far better than most.
posted by sallybrown at 6:39 PM on May 27, 2020 [12 favorites]
I will always be in awe of this protest. Larry understood the values the Church is supposed to embody—radical love, the sanctity and equality of every human life, fearlessness and selflessness in fighting for what’s right—far better than most.
posted by sallybrown at 6:39 PM on May 27, 2020 [12 favorites]
Larry Kramer famously clashed with - and subsequently changed the viewpoint of - the head of the federal response to the AIDS crisis, one Dr. Anthony Fauci. They became friends, and Fauci helped Kramer get his liver transplant. In a way, Kramer changed the outcomes of two epidemics, both AIDS and Covid-19.
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posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:42 PM on May 27, 2020 [35 favorites]
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posted by Homeboy Trouble at 6:42 PM on May 27, 2020 [35 favorites]
Peter Staley , another subject of How to Survive a Plague, gives tribute.
posted by Artw at 6:47 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
posted by Artw at 6:47 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
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posted by C. K. Dexter Haven at 6:57 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by C. K. Dexter Haven at 6:57 PM on May 27, 2020
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posted by praemunire at 7:04 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by praemunire at 7:04 PM on May 27, 2020
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One of the people shaping the world I grew up in, unaware as I was. Rest in power.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:05 PM on May 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
One of the people shaping the world I grew up in, unaware as I was. Rest in power.
posted by Lawn Beaver at 7:05 PM on May 27, 2020 [2 favorites]
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posted by jameaterblues at 7:14 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by jameaterblues at 7:14 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
I read a great comment about Kramer today. I can't find it to quote it, which is too bad since it was more eloquent than my mem ory. But the gist of it was that Kramer didn't just get a seat at the table; he built the table, put a chair for himself at the head of that table, and then grabbed a bunch of politicians and doctors and forced them to sit down at the table with us.
posted by Nelson at 7:34 PM on May 27, 2020 [8 favorites]
posted by Nelson at 7:34 PM on May 27, 2020 [8 favorites]
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Righteous fury is right. We need to pick up that banner and run with it.
posted by blurker at 7:38 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
Righteous fury is right. We need to pick up that banner and run with it.
posted by blurker at 7:38 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
Rest in power you “contentious” and “argumentative” and “confrontational" man.
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posted by rmd1023 at 7:41 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by rmd1023 at 7:41 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:42 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by Homo neanderthalensis at 7:42 PM on May 27, 2020
Wow. Talk about the arc of history bending towards justice.
I hadn't thought about Larry Kramer in years but he was instrumental in forming my ideas about the connection between healthcare and social justice. If you had told me back in the late 80s that Kramer would not only live to survive HIV but also live to get legally married to his partner, I never would have believed it, never in a million years. Both of those, effective treatments for HIV and marriage equality, are directly attributable to his activism. It blows me away that he lived to see the fruits of those.
For most of America, ACT-UP was a radical group. Today (and maybe back then) they would be called terrorists. But he fucking proved the bastards wrong. There is absolutely a role for getting angry, for screaming and yelling about the injustice. Being civil and voting your conscience in the face of injustice is for the privileged and for suckers.
"And the Band Played On" never really galvanized the people I knew. It was too cerebral, too political. We all already knew straight white christian men in suits were hateful hypocrites full of shit. It was "The Normal Heart" that captured the truth about who we really are as human beings and what was wrong and changed the conversation about gay people.
This is the hero we deserve. Things are not okay and the future depends on brave people willing to stake their lives on calling this out and working to force solutions.
I had a shitty day fighting with all the shit today. It makes me happy that Larry Kramer eventually lived to a ripe old age, free to love the person he loved, having saved countless lives. We have a long way to go, but maybe I'll get up tomorrow and keep fighting the shitty fight against the shit.
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posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:43 PM on May 27, 2020 [37 favorites]
I hadn't thought about Larry Kramer in years but he was instrumental in forming my ideas about the connection between healthcare and social justice. If you had told me back in the late 80s that Kramer would not only live to survive HIV but also live to get legally married to his partner, I never would have believed it, never in a million years. Both of those, effective treatments for HIV and marriage equality, are directly attributable to his activism. It blows me away that he lived to see the fruits of those.
For most of America, ACT-UP was a radical group. Today (and maybe back then) they would be called terrorists. But he fucking proved the bastards wrong. There is absolutely a role for getting angry, for screaming and yelling about the injustice. Being civil and voting your conscience in the face of injustice is for the privileged and for suckers.
"And the Band Played On" never really galvanized the people I knew. It was too cerebral, too political. We all already knew straight white christian men in suits were hateful hypocrites full of shit. It was "The Normal Heart" that captured the truth about who we really are as human beings and what was wrong and changed the conversation about gay people.
This is the hero we deserve. Things are not okay and the future depends on brave people willing to stake their lives on calling this out and working to force solutions.
I had a shitty day fighting with all the shit today. It makes me happy that Larry Kramer eventually lived to a ripe old age, free to love the person he loved, having saved countless lives. We have a long way to go, but maybe I'll get up tomorrow and keep fighting the shitty fight against the shit.
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posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:43 PM on May 27, 2020 [37 favorites]
I read The Normal Heart in the mid-1990s for an upper level English class called Gay Theatrics. I loved it (the play and the course). It was a life changing course with an incredible reading list. I didn’t know much about the history of gay rights, or about AIDS activism, but our professor was very knowledgeable and taught us all about people like Larry Kramer and the difference they had made to human rights.
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posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:21 PM on May 27, 2020
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posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:21 PM on May 27, 2020
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posted by oceanjesse at 8:27 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by oceanjesse at 8:27 PM on May 27, 2020
If you had told me back in the late 80s that Kramer would not only live to survive HIV but also live to get legally married to his partner, I never would have believed it, never in a million years.
I wouldn't have believed it then, either.
I can't think of many people who have had such an impact on the world.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:29 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
I wouldn't have believed it then, either.
I can't think of many people who have had such an impact on the world.
posted by Dip Flash at 8:29 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]
I can't think of many people who have had such an impact on the world.
This is a bit complicated.. its a few quotes from a very lengthy New Yorker article on Dr. Anthony Fauci which came out last month, but these weave together a tale worth knowing:
Larry Kramer did that. Larry Kramer through his movements made Fauci into a compassionate doctor when it came to HIV/AIDS and directly saved the lives of millions of people in the poorest countries living with HIV.
THAT is Larry Kramer.
There is no . to big enough.
posted by hippybear at 8:44 PM on May 27, 2020 [105 favorites]
This is a bit complicated.. its a few quotes from a very lengthy New Yorker article on Dr. Anthony Fauci which came out last month, but these weave together a tale worth knowing:
“God, I hated him,” Larry Kramer, the writer and activist who helped establish the two most important aids advocacy groups in the country, the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and act up, said. “As far as I was concerned, he was the central focus of evil in the world.” Kramer attacked Fauci relentlessly in the media. He called him an “incompetent idiot” and a “pill-pushing” tool of the medical establishment, insulted his wife, and even compared him to Adolf Eichmann. In 1988, Kramer published a scathing open letter. “Anthony Fauci, you are a murderer,” he wrote. “Your refusal to hear the screams of aids activists early in the crisis resulted in the deaths of thousands of Queers.”a bit later
Without entirely understanding his own motives, Fauci decided to look beyond the activists’ furious rhetoric and style. He recalls telling himself, “Let me put aside the goth dress—the earrings and the Mohawk haircuts and the black jackets—and just listen to what they have to say. And what they were saying made absolutely perfect sense.” It helped that Fauci had something in common with the activists: “They were all New York guys. I had a little affinity to them because I’m a New Yorker. And I said, What would I do if I were in their shoes? And it was very clear: I would have done exactly the same thing.”...
When the demonstrators marched on the N.I.H. campus in 1988, Fauci no longer saw a threat. “I looked at them, and I saw people who were in pain,” he recalled in an article in Holy Cross Magazine. He asked the police and the F.B.I. not to arrest any of them. Then he invited a handful of protest leaders to his office. “That began a relationship over many years,” Fauci said. “They let me into their camp. I went to the gay bathhouses and spoke to them. I went to San Francisco, to the Castro District, and I discussed the problems they were having, the degree of suffering that was going on in the community, the need for them to get involved in clinical trials, since there were no other possibilities for them to get access to drugs. And I earned their confidence.”quite a bit later
In 2002, I wrote a Profile of Larry Kramer for this magazine. By then, he and Fauci had become friends, with each expressing gratitude for the other’s work in those years. Fauci told me, “In American medicine, there are two eras: before Larry and after Larry. There is no question in my mind that Larry helped change medicine in this country. When all the screaming and the histrionics are forgotten, that will remain.” Kramer, who spent years in a constant rage at Fauci, now calls him “the only true and great hero” among government officials in the aids crisis.And a final quote, with emphasis mine:
The combination of money and political will can have extraordinary effects on public health. Under the George W. Bush Administration, Fauci was the principal architect of a landmark program called PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for aids Relief.PEPFAR has been called the single most effective mass health campaign ever mounted on the planet as far as directly saving lives is concerned.
By the time Bush took office, therapies for H.I.V. had become widely available in Western countries. But, for millions of people in the developing world, these drugs were too expensive or too difficult to obtain. Bush felt that it was unacceptable for the poorest people on earth to die because they could not afford medication that was dispensed routinely in the rich world. He asked Fauci to implement an initiative to prevent and treat H.I.V. on a global scale. It has been uniformly held up as a model of the ways in which global public-health programs can save lives. “pepfar has turned around declining life expectancies in many countries and likely saved some countries—even an entire continent—from economic ruin,” Harold Varmus, a former director of the N.I.H. and of the National Cancer Institute, wrote in the quarterly journal Science & Diplomacy.
Larry Kramer did that. Larry Kramer through his movements made Fauci into a compassionate doctor when it came to HIV/AIDS and directly saved the lives of millions of people in the poorest countries living with HIV.
THAT is Larry Kramer.
There is no . to big enough.
posted by hippybear at 8:44 PM on May 27, 2020 [105 favorites]
Larry Kramer scared me. As a closeted teenage fagling I'd see books like "Faggots" and want to run away. As I came out, the strength of his anger and commitment to yelling unpopular truths were touchstones that helped me become a better queer.
It's really worth seeing in detail how the NYT's obnoxious framing of his life evolved over the course of today by checking this thread from the EditingTheGrayLady twitter account. The evolution is quite revealing.
No one's mentioned the part of the obit's subhed where "his often abusive approach could overshadow his accomplishments." No, they couldn't, but you, Mr. Obit Writer, you sure could. The NYT quickly threw a "sometimes" in there and then just moved that shitty sentiment out of the subhed entirely, leaving it for the body of the obit, where it still lives, along with another snide comment:
Mr. Kramer enjoyed provocation for its own sake — he once introduced Mayor Edward I. Koch of New York to his pet wheaten terrier as the man who was “killing Daddy’s friends” — and this could sometimes overshadow his achievements as an author and social activist.
Calling Ed Koch out to a dog for killing Kramer's friends is "provocation for its own sake"? No, there were a few other sakes in there, thanks.
What a needlessly cruddy moment from the Times, in an obit for one of the key figures in the city's history. The authors should apologize. It does nothing but call back to the paper's equally cruddy performance during the early years of the AIDS era, and on lgbt issues in general throughout the 1980s.
And with that anger:
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posted by mediareport at 8:56 PM on May 27, 2020 [34 favorites]
It's really worth seeing in detail how the NYT's obnoxious framing of his life evolved over the course of today by checking this thread from the EditingTheGrayLady twitter account. The evolution is quite revealing.
No one's mentioned the part of the obit's subhed where "his often abusive approach could overshadow his accomplishments." No, they couldn't, but you, Mr. Obit Writer, you sure could. The NYT quickly threw a "sometimes" in there and then just moved that shitty sentiment out of the subhed entirely, leaving it for the body of the obit, where it still lives, along with another snide comment:
Mr. Kramer enjoyed provocation for its own sake — he once introduced Mayor Edward I. Koch of New York to his pet wheaten terrier as the man who was “killing Daddy’s friends” — and this could sometimes overshadow his achievements as an author and social activist.
Calling Ed Koch out to a dog for killing Kramer's friends is "provocation for its own sake"? No, there were a few other sakes in there, thanks.
What a needlessly cruddy moment from the Times, in an obit for one of the key figures in the city's history. The authors should apologize. It does nothing but call back to the paper's equally cruddy performance during the early years of the AIDS era, and on lgbt issues in general throughout the 1980s.
And with that anger:
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posted by mediareport at 8:56 PM on May 27, 2020 [34 favorites]
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posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:57 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by JoeXIII007 at 8:57 PM on May 27, 2020
Larry Kramer: a titan of gay rights and literature whose prophecies live on (Matthew Lopez, Guardian)
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posted by katra at 10:16 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by katra at 10:16 PM on May 27, 2020 [1 favorite]
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posted by kitten kaboodle at 10:25 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by kitten kaboodle at 10:25 PM on May 27, 2020
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posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:41 PM on May 27, 2020
posted by They sucked his brains out! at 10:41 PM on May 27, 2020
The last thing that Larry Kramer wrote was this baroque history of America, nominally a novel, but that was a publishers tag. It was a profoundly prophetic book, a wild, scream from the wilderness, but also at the same time, a kind of court gossip. To treat grade school history as court gossip; to treat the history of the AIDS crisis as both the genocide it is, and as a kaffeeklatsch, that had a purity I envy.
Working on queer history in the last few years, is this post-Focculadian mode of tiny nuances, we continue to note behaviour, and small nodes of meaning. Avoiding meta-narratives is avoiding the mythological, the prophetic mode. Obsessed with a tight, artful realness, is avoiding the mess of the world.
But the prophetic mode isn't nessc good for harm reduction--it has an anger whose fire blazes all ambivalence, who refuses to see other peoples lack of purity as anything but their own moral code. It also makes for bad novels, and bad plays--if you treat Faggots as a polemic, as an 18th century essay on the morals of taste--like Swfit or Addison, it functions well...if you treat The Normal Heart as a mystery play, or a medicine show, it functions well.
If you treat it in the late twentieth century mode, I am not sure that it works well.
But there is this genre, of the prophetic, that can handle monsters better than realism does. It would be impossible to imagine Angels in America would exist without it. But also, Jeremy Harris' A Slave Play (though Kramer was not good with race, and I suspect that he resented the singularity of gay male desire being refused, and fracturing)
I think that the prophetic mode, is a moral mode--and a weirdly humourless one. It's not that Kramer couldn't tell jokes, but they were poisoned ones. (Ed Koch and Kramer shared a building in Manhattan, when they met at the mailboxes Kramer told his dog, this was the man who killed Daddy's friends.)
I also think that the prophetic mode means that you can never be wrong---Kramer's monstrous ego and refusal to compromise, his refusal to give up the mike, means that his story has a kind of overwhelming sadness. It's a list of shattered alliances, of orgs started and then fired from.
There is a problem of elders--that the elders are so difficult are also to be listened to,
I wish we were less polite.
I want to be more like Kramer.
posted by PinkMoose at 12:07 AM on May 28, 2020 [13 favorites]
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posted by colorblock sock at 12:52 AM on May 28, 2020
posted by colorblock sock at 12:52 AM on May 28, 2020
REST IN POWER.
Let me say something rare out of another time:
REST IN SO MUCH PEACE AND POWER AND ANGER YOU RIGHTEOUSLY ANGRY CARING FAGGOT QUEER. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
Even before I even allowed myself to identify as queer I somehow managed to end up at ACTUP protests as a supportive proletariat street punk, and those experiences and the people were deeply informative and formative for me, because they made me realize how many QUEER people I knew of all kinds of stripes of the rainbow, including myself.
The injustices of the responses to the HIV viral health pandemic are being strangely mirrored across class lines and boundaries and inequalities right now in alarming ways and the parallels aren't... subtle or missed because I can't even safely hug anyone right now and I usually average 20-odd hugs a week and much less talking about dating or intimacy of any kind - and the wheel of progress is infuriatingly slow even if or when it's ticking forward, and not apparently sliding backwards.
Yeah, it's worse in that HIV was super ignored because: don't listen to queers and faggots and who cares but we can map this to front line "essential business" wage slaves and the imbalanced layoffs of more women than men and the imbalance of health care for racial, social or gender/sex minorities (even more marginalization for queers!).
Or the general idea that health care is on pause for a lot of trans and queer folk because no one is taking new patients, people can't get or are avoiding blood tests or check ins for HRT and gender therapy and oh shoot I could keep talking about how everything is fucked up for a few dozen paragraphs, but I'm tired.
I'm ok and have good health care, and I will remark VERY LOUDLY that this is a fairly new thing that has ratcheted forward on the wheel of progress and that I am very thankful for.
Some things - some bits and pieces - have gotten better, but the pawls on that ratchet seem to be slipping and wearing.
Anyway, I'm loving the depth of human, righteous anger in the comments here, especially Slarty Bartfast and hippybear.
Hugs to everyone. Not air hugs from six feet away. Big old stinky human bear hugs.
posted by loquacious at 2:37 AM on May 28, 2020 [17 favorites]
Let me say something rare out of another time:
REST IN SO MUCH PEACE AND POWER AND ANGER YOU RIGHTEOUSLY ANGRY CARING FAGGOT QUEER. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.
Even before I even allowed myself to identify as queer I somehow managed to end up at ACTUP protests as a supportive proletariat street punk, and those experiences and the people were deeply informative and formative for me, because they made me realize how many QUEER people I knew of all kinds of stripes of the rainbow, including myself.
The injustices of the responses to the HIV viral health pandemic are being strangely mirrored across class lines and boundaries and inequalities right now in alarming ways and the parallels aren't... subtle or missed because I can't even safely hug anyone right now and I usually average 20-odd hugs a week and much less talking about dating or intimacy of any kind - and the wheel of progress is infuriatingly slow even if or when it's ticking forward, and not apparently sliding backwards.
Yeah, it's worse in that HIV was super ignored because: don't listen to queers and faggots and who cares but we can map this to front line "essential business" wage slaves and the imbalanced layoffs of more women than men and the imbalance of health care for racial, social or gender/sex minorities (even more marginalization for queers!).
Or the general idea that health care is on pause for a lot of trans and queer folk because no one is taking new patients, people can't get or are avoiding blood tests or check ins for HRT and gender therapy and oh shoot I could keep talking about how everything is fucked up for a few dozen paragraphs, but I'm tired.
I'm ok and have good health care, and I will remark VERY LOUDLY that this is a fairly new thing that has ratcheted forward on the wheel of progress and that I am very thankful for.
Some things - some bits and pieces - have gotten better, but the pawls on that ratchet seem to be slipping and wearing.
Anyway, I'm loving the depth of human, righteous anger in the comments here, especially Slarty Bartfast and hippybear.
Hugs to everyone. Not air hugs from six feet away. Big old stinky human bear hugs.
posted by loquacious at 2:37 AM on May 28, 2020 [17 favorites]
Thank you for your anger, your rage, your fury. Thank you for making people have to sit up and listen.
Thank you for the many lives you saved.
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posted by daybeforetheday at 3:10 AM on May 28, 2020
Thank you for the many lives you saved.
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posted by daybeforetheday at 3:10 AM on May 28, 2020
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posted by nightrecordings at 4:42 AM on May 28, 2020
posted by nightrecordings at 4:42 AM on May 28, 2020
God bless Larry Kramer for even in death forcing the NYT to reveal its predilection for raw power worship.
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posted by PMdixon at 5:20 AM on May 28, 2020 [13 favorites]
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posted by PMdixon at 5:20 AM on May 28, 2020 [13 favorites]
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posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 5:32 AM on May 28, 2020
posted by The Ardship of Cambry at 5:32 AM on May 28, 2020
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posted by robotmachine at 6:48 AM on May 28, 2020
posted by robotmachine at 6:48 AM on May 28, 2020
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posted by lalochezia at 7:18 AM on May 28, 2020
posted by lalochezia at 7:18 AM on May 28, 2020
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posted by pseudophile at 8:55 AM on May 28, 2020
posted by pseudophile at 8:55 AM on May 28, 2020
Amen to Larry's righteous anger and to his accomplishments and to the fantastic comments in this thread. Rest in power indeed.
posted by biggreenplant at 9:04 AM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by biggreenplant at 9:04 AM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
His 1983 essay in the New York Native, 1,112 and Counting.
If this article doesn't scare the shit out of you, we're in real trouble. If this article doesn't rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay men may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.
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posted by cadge at 9:37 AM on May 28, 2020 [4 favorites]
If this article doesn't scare the shit out of you, we're in real trouble. If this article doesn't rouse you to anger, fury, rage, and action, gay men may have no future on this earth. Our continued existence depends on just how angry you can get.
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posted by cadge at 9:37 AM on May 28, 2020 [4 favorites]
Fuck. Rest in peace, king.
posted by lazaruslong at 10:28 AM on May 28, 2020
posted by lazaruslong at 10:28 AM on May 28, 2020
This one hurts. I thought he would live forever. I mean not really, but geez. It's not an understatement to say that I am here as an openly gay man in 2020 because of him.
posted by Automocar at 10:51 AM on May 28, 2020 [5 favorites]
posted by Automocar at 10:51 AM on May 28, 2020 [5 favorites]
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posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:15 PM on May 28, 2020
posted by The Underpants Monster at 1:15 PM on May 28, 2020
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I have nothing of my own to add but I just wanted to express my gratitude for the impassioned words expressed in this thread.
posted by myfavoriteband at 4:55 PM on May 28, 2020
I have nothing of my own to add but I just wanted to express my gratitude for the impassioned words expressed in this thread.
posted by myfavoriteband at 4:55 PM on May 28, 2020
(although as I think about it, probably the last thing Larry Kramer would have wanted is a moment of silence)
posted by dlugoczaj at 5:31 PM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by dlugoczaj at 5:31 PM on May 28, 2020 [1 favorite]
Kramer and the other folks in ACT UP were a huge influence on me as a lesbian coming out in the early 90s in high school. I can’t overstate what it meant to me to see other queer people get mad about how we were treated rather than excusing and minimizing it, and they made me see in a real way how intersectional oppressions worked on a large scale and how to address them mediagenically. Rest in power, Larry. Your work isn’t done, but you showed us how to keep going.
posted by bile and syntax at 7:17 PM on May 28, 2020 [4 favorites]
posted by bile and syntax at 7:17 PM on May 28, 2020 [4 favorites]
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posted by en forme de poire at 10:00 AM on May 29, 2020
posted by en forme de poire at 10:00 AM on May 29, 2020
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posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 9:23 PM on May 29, 2020
posted by Mutant Lobsters from Riverhead at 9:23 PM on May 29, 2020
this is what I posted on metafilter when The Normal Heart had its Broadway run:
God bless Larry Kramer
God bless the Cassandras
God bless the screamers
God bless those who refuse to "be nice" when that doesn't produce results.
rip
posted by brujita at 7:28 PM on May 30, 2020 [2 favorites]
God bless Larry Kramer
God bless the Cassandras
God bless the screamers
God bless those who refuse to "be nice" when that doesn't produce results.
rip
posted by brujita at 7:28 PM on May 30, 2020 [2 favorites]
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ACTUP
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posted by tzikeh at 5:49 PM on May 27, 2020 [3 favorites]