Larry Kramer In Love & Anger

"made me think. first thought: oh wow, larry kramer very probably had borderline personality disorder, i can see it behind almost everything he did or said. his pushing at loved ones, testing relationships to destruction, anxiety, depression, anger, suicide attempts, etc. thought 2: that (probable) condition helped form a man who ended up saving a lot of gay men. the '1112 and counting' article was what was needed in that moment. we needed someone to scream at bureaucracy, and well-handled, larry kramer was exactly the weapon appropriate for that role. of course, humans aren't weapons and his inability to rein in his expressed emotions led to group fractures and being gently dismissed from the GMHC negotiating table. thought 3: kramer definitely does come at this from a white well-to-do gay cis man's perspective. he's only able to be that angry because he is white and can't be browbeaten into silence with the threat of poverty. yes, it's amazing he was able to galvanize communities and put in the work. but fire island and the pines were largely white and well-enough off to afford attending. if AIDS had not touched his personal circle of the community (which he had an uneasy relationship with to start with), i wonder if he still would have been willing to 'act up' as much as he did. somehow, from all the slurs he slings almost carelessly, i can't say he would have. those slurs are not for him to reclaim. still, it was really nice to see him get married and continue to push for safe sex practices in the '00s. i have yet to read 'fa**ots', but i'm curious about his gay history manuscript, and if it was finished before his death. 'you can't be a people without a history' is such a great line, and definitely explains the role homophobic colonialism took in destroying native people's way of life and oral histories. kill the oral history and you kill the community. we are the stories we tell each other; be careful you tell the true stories."