In 1981, with five friends, Larry Kramer founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis, still one of the world’s largest providers of services to those with AIDS. In 1987, he founded ACT UP, the AIDS advocacy and protest organization, which has been responsible for the development and release of almost every life-saving treatment for HIV/AIDS. Among his numerous plays is The Normal Heart, which was selected as one of the 100 Best Plays of the 20th Century by Britain’s National Theatre and is the longest running play in the history of New York’s Public Theater. Kramer’s screenplay adaptation of D. H. Lawrence’s Women in Love, a film he also produced, was nominated for an Academy Award. His novel, Faggots, continues to be one of the best selling of all gay novels. He is a recipient of the Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts and Letters and was the first openly gay person and the first creative artist to be honored by an award from Common Cause. His straight brother Arthur’s establishment of The Larry Kramer Initiative for Lesbian and Gay Studies at Yale was rewarded by its closure by the University. For many years he has been writing a very long book about the plague, The American People, which is now some 4000 pages. His most recent book is The Tragedy of Today’s Gays (Penguin), which will tell you everything you need to know about him, about AIDS, and about America.

“There is no question in my mind that Larry helped change medicine in this country. And he helped change it for the better. In American medicine there are two eras. Before Larry and after Larry.” (Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, quoted in The New Yorker, May 13, 2002.)

On December 21, 2001, Kramer was the 22nd person co-infected with HIV and hepatitis B to receive a liver transplant, from which he has miraculously and spectacularly recovered. Kramer lives in New York and Connecticut with his lover, architect/designer David Webster.

“Larry Kramer is one of America’s most valuable troublemakers. I hope he never lowers his voice.” Susan Sontag

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