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Why I Love Larry Kramer

Earlier this week, a small energetic group of homosexuals converged on the recruiting station in Times Square to protest the comments made by Gen. Peter Pace. They surrounded the famous little building and began shouting slogans denouncing bigotry against the gay community. Soon after it began, a dignified older gentleman, with a full white beard stepped forward and tried to enter the station to sign up to serve his country and to express his extreme displeasure about Gen. Pace's comments, to someone in charge. That gentleman was Larry Kramer. When he tried to enter, he couldn't because the recruiters locked the door. The police came soon afterwards and arrested him and the other protesters. At 71, Larry Kramer is obviously not eligible to serve. He has, as far as I know, never served and quite frankly, he could fairly be characterized as a "radical leftie." Yet there he was, ready and willing, if not able. And man o' man was he fired up about General Pace! Go Larry go; give 'em hell! For those of you who have never heard of Larry Kramer, he is widely acknowledged as being a titan of gay history. He is the founder of ACT UP. ACT UP was the organization that forced the Reagan administration to deal with the nascent AIDS crisis during the 80's. President Reagan would rather have just ignored it or characterized it as merely a "gay" disease. Without Larry, there would have been no federal funding for research or public awareness of the issue. ACT UP was famous for doing things like throwing pigs blood in St. Patrick's cathedral in New York City or disrupting political events with raucous shouting. For a while, in the 80's I remember Larry and his compatriots making the news almost every other day being dragged off in handcuffs. Of course at that time I was so deep in the closet that I found his immoderate behavior to be distasteful; in other words, I was a clueless. Larry Kramer, through sheer force of will and fearless determination, made the world take notice of gay people and their issues. He was and is a potent catalyst for change, even if he is a lion with a grey mane now. Society is more accepting today of gay people because of men and women like Larry. I used to think that the "diplomatic" approach was the best way to achieve change, because by nature I am pretty reasonable. Like most people who served in the military, I like order, am pretty conservative and definitely polite. Over the past four or five years though, my view has changed substantially, particularly after I learned about people like Larry Kramer. I now believe that reasonable is not the right approach at all. What I'm trying to express here can be summed up in a simple question we must all ask ourselves everyday. "If not now, when?" Everybody loves Will and Grace, and the Queer Eye guys. The L Word is a hit, and not a night goes by without some talking head discussing gay rights. More and more people accept gay people. Straight society knows who we are and is influenced heavily by us, and yet we are still very much second class citizens. Sadly, many of our own community are falsely lulled into complacency by all the visibility, thinking that " well, you know, it will change eventually." NEWSFLASH: IT WON'T! IT WILL ONLY CHANGE IF WE SEE IT THROUGH WITH A SENSE OF URGENCY! Now, not some distant time in the future, should be our approach. Moreover, if that means that things have to get a little ugly, then so be it. We have to win and it would be nice to do so gracefully, but if not that's just fine by me. There are one million gay veterans in this country and 65,000 active duty servicemen who are putting their asses on line for America. There are more than enough of us to make an impact, but WE HAVE TO GET PISSED OFF! I am appealing to the war fighter in all of you. Tap into that instinct to grind your enemies into the dust! People who openly punk us and think they can get away with it, must be made to pay a terrible price. We should be out there creating change all the time. We should be angry even when there is not some newsworthy outrage like the chairman's remarks. The fact that one gay service member should have to face death or injury having to hide who they are is sickening AND CAUSE ENOUGH FOR OUR RAGE! I want victory now! I want our gay sons and daughters to be respected and honored for the sacrifice that they make on our behalf! I will stand up for them, and I don't care how ugly it has to get, so they will receive what they deserve! All of you should feel the same and do something. Thank you, Larry Kramer, for teaching me a valuable lesson- CHANGE HAPPENS THROUGH RIGHTEOUS ANGER. - Jeff McGowan -----

03-17-07