LARRY KRAMER

May 29, 2020

Larry Kramer, an author, playwright and film producer who helped shape U.S. healthcare policy with his early advocacy of a national response to AIDS when it first emerged in the 1980s, died at the age of 84.

About:

  • Laurence David Kramer (1935 – 2020) was an American playwright, author, film producer, public health advocate, and LGBT rights activist.

  • He co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which has become the world's largest private organization assisting people living with AIDS.

  • His political activism continued with the founding of the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in 1987, an influential direct action protest organization with the aim of gaining more public action to fight the AIDS crisis.

  • Kramer, whose works include the award-winning 1985 play, “The Normal Heart,” established himself as a fierce advocate for LGBTQ rights as the gay community, including many of his friends, became afflicted with AIDS, a newly emergent disease in the 1980s.

  • According to UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS, “His contribution to the global AIDS response was invaluable.” 

Source : News18