Larry Kramer

#LarryKramer (June 25, 1935 – May 27, 2020): The #LGBTQIA community owes a lot to its heroes, and gay men specifically have Kramer to thank for much of the activism of the past 40 years. First and foremost, he was a writer before he became a well-known activist, something that drew him criticism with some of the subject matter of his books by both heterosexual and homosexual readers. In the early 1980s, Kramer witnessed first-hand the damage of the #AIDS crisis and fought in the years afterward in getting the government to care about the thousands of deaths due to the disease and the ravaging effects it had on the gay community. He co-founded the #GayMensHealthCrisis, which he resigned from because he felt the organization wasn’t doing enough (which he wrote about in #TheNormalHeart). From there he founded the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (#ACTUP), which aimed at specific and direction action to bring attention to the AIDS crisis and even more specifically to funding and finding a cure. Though society has certainly made great strides in terms of HIV/AIDS care, (seen in the advent of drugs like Truvada and other antiretroviral drugs), Kramer still expressed frustration as these pills are not a cure to the disease. On May 27th, 2020, Larry Kramer passed away from pneumonia at the age of 84, a month shy of his 85th birthday. #PrideMonth #LGBTQIA #LGBTQIAPride #Pride #LegendsOfPride #YouCannotEraseUs