New York Times: Larry Kramer, Playwright and Outspoken AIDS Activist, Dies at 84
“Larry Kramer, the noted writer whose raucous, antagonistic campaign for an all-out response to the AIDS crisis helped shift national health policy in the 1980s and ’90s, died on Wednesday morning in Manhattan. He was 84. … An author, essayist, and playwright — notably hailed for his autobiographical 1985 play, ‘The Normal Heart’ — Mr. Kramer had feet in both the world of letters and the public sphere. In 1981 he was a founder of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first service organization for HIV-positive people … He was then a founder of a more militant group, ACT UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power), whose street actions demanding a speedup in AIDS drugs research and an end to discrimination against gay men and lesbians severely disrupted the operations of government offices, Wall Street, and the Roman Catholic hierarchy…” (Lewis, 5/27).

Additional coverage of Larry Kramer’s legacy is available from CNN, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Washington Post.