Birth of AIDS activism January 1982: Larry Kramer was among the first to make on the growing health crisis. (Rebels & Pioneers).It was already dark outside at 6 P.M. January 12, 1982, when six friends huddled over the round coffee table in the Washington Square living room of New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of writer Larry Kramer Larry Kramer (born June 25 1935 in Bridgeport, Connecticut), is an American playwright, author, public health advocate and gay rights activist. He was nominated for an Academy Award, was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and was twice a recipient of an Obie Award. . The group had been meeting every two weeks for the previous seven months to get updates on the mysterious "gay cancer" that was already claiming lives at an alarming rate. With doctors, public health advocates, and the general public unaware and unconcerned about the disease, these six took it upon themselves to strategize ways to fight the disease. Sometimes dozens of other frightened and curious gay men joined them. Most of the time it was just this core six: Nathan Fain fain adv. 1. Happily; gladly: "I would fain improve every opportunity to wonder and worship, as a sunflower welcomes the light" Henry David Thoreau. 2. , Edmund White, Paul Popham, Paul Rapoport, Lawrence Mass, and, of course, Kramer. But January 12 was different. "We decided we had to make this [group] official," remembers Kramer, who by that time had already lost half a dozen friends to the puzzling disease. As the men gathered that night, Rapoport declared, "Gay men certainly have a health crisis." And thus was born what would turn into the world's largest AIDS service organization AIDS service organizations are community based that provide community support. While their primary function is to provide needed services to individuals with HIV, they also provide support services for their families and friends as well as conduct prevention efforts. : Gay Men's Health Crisis The Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) is a non-profit, volunteer-supported and community-based AIDS service organization that has led the United States in the fight against AIDS. . "We knew we needed a plan to raise money and get the word out," Kramer says. "We didn't know if we had any support in the community. But we knew we had to do something." Initially, even gay men were reluctant to support the group. "We were viewed as committing the ultimate betrayal: criticizing gay sexual life," Kramer says. "A lot of gay men were afraid they were going to lose their sexual rights. They didn't want to hear they could lose their lives." Still, as scientific information about the disease surfaced in bits and pieces--and as more and more gay men got sick and died--"an incredible energy coalesced co·a·lesce intr.v. co·a·lesced, co·a·lesc·ing, co·a·lesc·es 1. To grow together; fuse. 2. To come together so as to form one whole; unite: " around GMHC GMHC Gay Men's Health Crisis (AIDS organization) GMHC Gay Men's Health Centre (HIV/AIDS organisation, Melbourne, Australia) GMHC Greater Manchester Hazards Center Ltd , he says. "We were working together as a community to bring about something important, and we were making up the rules of activism as we went along. The early days of GMHC were intensely moving--even glorious." |
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