I have long admired Larry Kramer for his art, his writing
and, mostly, for his in-your-face activism on the part of both the LGBT
community and equality, and his work with HIV/AIDS patients. In 1980, as someone
who was right there when the disease, that so-called ‘gay cancer’, that became
known as AIDS, Kramer and his friends founded the Gay Men’s Health crisis [GMHC]—which
is the largest private organization in the world assisting people living with
AIDS.
But that wasn’t enough for Kramer, and in frustration at the
lack of interest by both the government and the apathy of gay men to the
crisis, he penned The Normal Heart in 1985, which fueled his fight and lead to
him founding the AIDS Coalition to Unleash power [ACT UP] in 1987.
He has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for his play The Destiny of Me and is a two-time recipient of
the Obie Award.
The Normal Heart won the Tony Award for best play revival on Broadway in 2011,
and Larry Kramer received a special Tony last month for his humanitarian
service.
But that’s not why I mention Kramer today; today there is
another story: Larry Kramer got married.
Kramer married his longtime partner, David Webster last week
in the intensive care unit of NYU Langone Medical Center, where Kramer has been
recovering from surgery for a bowel obstruction. They had set the wedding date
weeks earlier, and Kramer and Webster weren’t going to let a little thing like
surgery and the ICU stop them.
The original plan—to be married on the terrace of their
Greenwich Village apartment with two witnesses and a judge—was scrapped in
favor of the ICU, where some two dozen friends and relatives watched Kramer and
Webster tie the knot.
“I had been traveling when Larry went into the hospital, and when I was back and he was able to talk, he told me he had invited 20 people to the I.C.U. for the wedding. So it turned into a little party at his bedside.”—David Webster
Instead of the usual vows, Kramer and Webster just spoke from
the heart; David Webster laughed, and said, “Why would Larry need a script?”
Kramer had long been skeptical of state laws permitting same-sex
marriage as long as DOMA was in place, going
so far as to call those marriages “feel-good marriages” because they conveyed
few tangible benefits. But, once DOMA was dead, Kramer and Webster decided it was
time; time to marry and have friends and family and the state of New York and
their country accept the fact that they are now a legally married couple.
Perhaps one day, all gay couples in all states will be able
to have that same feeling: acceptance, but until then, Congratulations to the happy couple!.
