Oui (September 1978): "What's in a Gay Novel for You?"

DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND THEY ARE TAKING AWAY OUR RIGHTS AND SUBJECTING US TO HORRIBLE ABUSE AND DEATHS? Jesus Christ people

The only way we'll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn't just sexual. It's all there - all through history we've been there; but we have to claim it, and identify who was in it, and articulate what's in our minds and hearts and all our creative contributions to this earth. And until we do that, and until we organize ourselves block by neighborhood by city by state into a united visible community that fights back, we're doomed. That's how I want to be defined: as one of the men who fought the war. Being defined by our cocks is literally killing us. Must we all be reduced to becoming our own murderers? Why couldn't you and I, Bruce Niles and Ned Weeks, have been leaders in creating new a definition of what it means to be gay?

Larry did an immense amount of work for AIDS advocacy. He was a highly acclaimed gay Jewish screenwriter, playwright, and author. In the '80s as he couldn't just sit by and watch his friends die while the government did nothing. He first founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC), which has gone on to provide more in home care for individuals with AIDS than any other private organization. Realizing that political action was needed to get the government to address the AIDS crisis he left GMHC and founded AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP). ACT UP organized massive political protests including their infamous Die-Ins, where protesters lied down with signs in the shape of tombstones. ACT UP's Die-Ins disrupted Wall Street multiple times and forced the US Government to act. In 1988 after years of advocating for AIDS related causes he was diagnosed with HIV, which he survived for decades until passing from pneumonia in 2020. May we remember the two organizations he founded, one for service and one for advocacy, and go forth with a similar two pronged approach!

Directed by Ryan Murphy

Legendary AIDS activist, playwright, and author Larry Kramer would have been 90 years old today. Although he was just as pugnacious with his own allies as he was with his enemies, we celebrate that fight and need that fight more today than ever.