Newsday - May 30, 2001
Laurie Garrett and Curtis L. Taylor, Staff Writers

Don't tell Kramer the American AIDS epidemic is under control or a declining problem. Between fits of hacking cough brought on by at least two decades of battling both HIV and hepatitis B, Kramer, as is his wont, waxes eloquently angry.

"I think it's too late. Period. It's just too late! Too many people don't want to see this get cured," he says.

Ever since the epidemic began, Kramer, 65, who believes he was infected with HIV sometime in the 1970s, has decried what he calls the lack of genuine concern about the disease among American leaders, scientists and the public. "Africa's epidemic," Kramer warns, "isn't that far away."

A now-famous meeting at Kramer's Manhattan apartment in 1981 led to the creation of the Gay Men's Health Crisis, which, after more than 19 years, remains the largest nonprofit provider of services to those with AIDS, serving more than 11,000 people last year.

"Larry was screaming about this from Day One and saw it [the AIDS epidemic] 10 years before," says Rodger McFarlane, former executive director of the GMHC and Kramer's ex-lover. "Larry was prophetic and his generosity helped save lives."

Using tactics reminiscent of the rights struggle of the 1950s and '60s, Kramer and other AIDS activists orchestrated a wave of civil disobedience in the late 1980s on Wall Street and at Grand Central Station and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Those tactics temporarily crippled the city and won him just as many friends as enemies.

One of his adversaries was former New York City Mayor Edward I. Koch, who recently praised Kramer in an interview for his commitment to the AIDS struggle.

"Larry Kramer did a lot of good things," said Koch, who, during his administration, found himself receiving the brunt of Kramer's criticism. "I have no quarrel with him. He was the genius of the AIDS counterattack movement. He deserves the applause and gratitude of everyone concerned."

"He really was a predictor of what was necessary to keep people alive," said state Sen. Thomas Duane (D-Manhattan). "His tactics were brilliant, his rhetoric was right on and he was a forceful leader."

His friend McFarlane said:

"This is a rich and very successful man who could have had a different career....He devoted his life to fighting for people, and in fighting for AIDS, he won a battle for all sick people. Medicine will never be the same. Now, the medical consumer doesn't just accept what the doctor says. He reads and challenges everything. Larry gave birth to consumer activism in medicine."

The respect for Kramer's lifetime commitment to the AIDS movement was recently evident at an AIDS fund-raiser at the Museum of the City of New York. A hush fell over the room when it was learned he was in the audience.

Once his name was announced, the room exploded into applause, and Kramer was moved to tears.

After almost 20 years of roaring, Kramer was silent.

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