If you've ever wondered why there's a dearth of radical older gay men, mostly in the range of 50+, it's at least in part because of that. Puritanical anti-sex assholes like Larry Kramer managed to survive for obvious reasons, and then got to revise history and sound like an unheard Cassandra, when the reality was that a lot of the damage had already been done by the time he started his own activism.

In my view, this led to a rightward shift in the activism of the gay community, which ended up hijacking a lot of the hard work that lesbian and trans activists had built up, and moved towards respectability rather than queer liberation.

All the more reason to say fuck Reagan for ignoring it for nearly a decade. Even Thatcher did something about it and that's saying something.

This isn't even my take, it's something that an AIDS activist in the late '80s said, that AIDS killed off the interesting gays. But thought it would be

  • gayhobbes [he/him]
    1·
    4 years ago

    My humble suggestion: just get him talking and record it. You will have the raw materials from there to then write something or give it to someone to write.

    Also lmao that is some beautiful petty shit

    • Dear_Occupant [he/him]
      ·
      4 years ago

      I guess I didn't make this clear enough, he died November 1 of the year 2000. He had no idea what was coming next but good grief I wish I could hear his takes. It was All Souls Day, exactly one year prior to the day I just mentioned when he shit in front of our friend's back gate. I remember the date because of the homily we read, and that's why the story stands out to me. We weren't even all that religious, by the time we got to doing that together it was pure ritual, just some comfort for each other in the mornings before breakfast. I can't do any of this story justice in a comment. Like I said, I'm still trying to figure out how to write about him, and it's been two decades now.

      • gayhobbes [he/him]
        ·
        4 years ago

        Christ sorry, I'm an idiot. Well my advice stays the same, just record yourself telling his stories, and then that's something you can work from.

        Oof sorry. That was stupid of me.