Writer and veteran activist Larry Kramer gave an address severely
critical of today’s gay men at the historic Great Hall of the Cooper Union.
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By Gerard Robinson
Friday, November 12, 2004
“As of Nov. 2, gay rights are officially dead,” Larry Kramer proclaimed
in a public address to the gay community on Sunday, Nov. 7. “It’s
guillotine time; 23 percent of gays voted against us in the election; 60 million
people think we are immoral. It’s hard to stand up to so much hate.”
The program, at which playwright and actor John Cameron Mitchell (“Hedwig
and the Angry Inch”) introduced Kramer, was presented by the HIV Forum,
the six-man group founded to fight the epidemic of crystal meth among gay men.
But crystal was only part of Kramer’s jeremiad, which ranged over issues
from national politics to safe-sex etiquette. Kramer’s choice of the Great
Hall at the Cooper Union, on Astor Place in the East Village, was no coincidence.
Since Abraham Lincoln catapulted himself to the presidency with an 1859 speech,
the Great Hall has been the designated site for those wishing to make a Big
Statement.
In his opening remarks, Mitchell called Kramer a “Cassandra” who
tried to warn people about the looming threat and then the avalanche of AIDS
cases in the 1980s. On Nov. 7, Kramer lamented the current state of denial among
young gays who have sex without rubbers.
He also took aim at crystal meth. “We are murdering each other,”
he said. “I know I murdered some of them.” (Kramer is himself HIV
positive and believes he was infected in the late ‘70s.)
Although Kramer is perhaps best known for his activism, Kramer is primarily
a writer. His play “The Normal Heart,” which was recently revived,
was the first major theatrical work about the politics of AIDS. His play “The
Destiny of Me” lost a Pulitzer Prize to “Angels in America.”
He is currently writing a book entitled “The American People,”
already 3,000 pages long. Kramer said that it is difficult for him to write
now because of continuing health problems. (He has received a liver transplant
for hepatitis C.)
At the forum, Kramer said that the current state of HIV drug cocktails is the
reason many gay men have a false sense of security. They think AIDS is a manageable
disease. However, Kramer spoke of the side effects; he said he has lost his
appetite thanks to protease inhibiters.
“One of these days the miraculous drugs that keep us alive are going
to stop working,” he said. “Our systems cannot process these chemotherapies
That is what we are on. Chemotherapy kills the disease or it kills you.”
Kramer accused gay men of being “inept at organizing ourselves.”
He spoke from experience, having co-founded Gay Men’s Health Crisis and
being the founding father of ACT-UP.
Kramer despaired of ever winning the war against AIDS. “I fear for us
as a people,” he said. There are now 70 million people infected with HIV.
He called HIV “the worst disaster in human history.”
He said we have “brought this on ourselves” and that we cannot
fight with a united front when some are unable to change certain behaviors —
specifically, crystal use and unsafe sex. Just for good measure, he added that
Hitler was the original meth freak.
Kramer insisted that gay Americans wield no power and have no access to the
powerful. Nevertheless, he reiterated several times, “I love being gay.
I think we are better than other people: smarter; talented; more aware; better
friends.”
Gay activists, he said, were blindsided by the fight over “moral values,”
which some say cost Kerry the White House. “We should have seen it coming,”
he said. “Moral values, in case you need a translation, means us.”
He accused his generation of gay men for not having passed “the baton”
to the younger generation. Echoing the theme of his 1977 book “Faggots,”
Kramer exhorted the crowd to “grow up.”
“When are you going to realize that for the rest of your lives, probably
the rest of life on Earth, you are never going to be able to have sex with another
person without a condom? Never.”
In light of voters in 11 states having overwhelmingly approved bans on gay
marriage, he said, “We can forget gay marriage.” Ditto for non-discrimination
laws and gay adoption. He went so far as to compare the current climate in the
country to Nazi Germany.
Even though, for Kramer, Clinton was no better than George W. Bush when it
comes to securing our rights, “You ain’t seen nothing yet,”
he warned.
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