The guy living with HIV since the 1980s, is no longer. He was 84, which is remarkable in itself, but also because he has undergone a liver transplant. His donor was also HIV+, and he was one of the first, if not the first, HIV+ recipients to receive an organ from another HIV+ person.
He was positive for HIV back when it was a death sentence, but somehow managed to hang on, and as medicines came on the market, he was lucky, and responded well to them.
There’s really no telling how long he was HIV+, but it could have been fully half of his 84 years.
He was a playwright, responsible for Faggot, and The Normal Heart, and an activist, who founded Act-UP.
More questionably, he participated in the outing of a lot of gay people in the 80s and early 90s, but that’s the kind of radical he was.
I was hot and cold for his activism, but I admired his courage.
Larry Kramer has died. He was a playwright and the ultimate AIDS activist, and so much more. His dedication and inspiration saved countless lives, especially through the Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT-UP. I was a member of both, and a personal friend of Larry. He will be greatly missed, but his inspiration lives on. Larry was 84.