Larry Kramer, American playwright, author, public health advocate, and LGBTQ civil rights activist, passed away on 2020-05-27 00:00:00 UTC at the age of 84. Larry was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, on June 25, 1935, to parents George and Rea Kramer. He was a 1953 graduate of Fairfield Country Day School in Fairfield, Connecticut. He later attended Yale University, where he majored in English and joined the school's Dramatic Society. Larry began his career as a screenwriter and Hollywood script doctor before penning his seminal play, The Normal Heart. His Tony- and Emmy-winning play was inspired by his experience as a gay man in one of the meeting places of the early Gay Rights movement in New York City in the early 1980s. His most recent Broadway production was The Pride Plays in 2019. In addition to his work in theater, Larry was an advocate for public health and LGBTQ civil rights. He was a co-founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis in New York City in 1982, and a founding member of AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP) in the late 1980s. He was also actively involved in his own Fight for a National AIDS strategy, whose mission was to increase the federal government’s response to HIV/AIDS. Larry was a recipient of a 2000 National Arts Award, a 2003 GLAAD Media Vito Russo Award, and a 2012 Tony Honor. He was awarded the Stonewall Award from the American Library Association and was a Guggenheim Fellow. Larry Kramer is survived by his husband, scholar and writer David Webster, with whom he entered a civil union in 2013.