For Gay Men's Health Crisis, the 'Crisis' Has Never Gone Away

Contents:

• REFLECTG ON THE AIDS EPIMIC THIS GAY MEN’S HEALTH CRISIS FOUNRS’ DAY
• EARLY DAYS OF AIDS: ‘MAKG GAY HISTORY’ FEATUR GMHC
• IT'S BEEN 35 YEARS SCE GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS BEGAN LARRY KRAMER'S LIVG ROOM
• EXCLIVE TERVIEW WH THE FOUNR OF GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS
• GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS (GMHC) GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS (GMHC)

REFLECTG ON THE AIDS EPIMIC THIS GAY MEN’S HEALTH CRISIS FOUNRS’ DAY

On June 5, 1981, the Uned Stat Centers for Disease Control and Preventn (CDC) issued s first warng about a relatively rare form of pnmonia among a small group of young gay men Los Angel, which was later termed to be AIDS-related. Eighty men gather wrer Larry Kramer’s apartment to addrs the “gay ncer” and to raise money for rearch. This rmal meetg provis the foundatn of what will soon bee Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC).

GMHC lnc the “Beyond 200 Sexual Health Survey” New York Cy, the largt survey of gay and bisexual men sce the begng of the study published Newsday reports an timated 69, 000 people New York State have HIV but rema unaware of . Our HistoryIn 1981, eighty men gathered wrer Larry Kramer’s apartment to addrs the “gay ncer” and to raise money for rearch.

This rmal meetg provid the foundatn of what would soon bee Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC). I was a petrified, 26-year-old, closeted, old, gay man when began, livg an abandoned brownstone Harlem wh no heat or hot water that I had purchased to renovate.

EARLY DAYS OF AIDS: ‘MAKG GAY HISTORY’ FEATUR GMHC

Simultaneoly, a livg room lower Manhattan, Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first anizatn ever created to bat AIDS, was beg formed. The effort to create GMHC was led by Larry Kramer, who I was lucky to meet shortly after I moved to New York providg me wh the nam of gay doctors faiar wh AIDS so I uld seek treatment myself, to offerg unsel when my boyiend Stt me down wh Kaposi’s sara, Larry and GMHC were there for me. It was a bean of hope for so many people livg wh AIDS, livg wh partners and close iends wh the illns, of gay or bisexual men who were aaid and facg discrimatn and stigma ― beg fired om their jobs, evicted om their apartments, or nied accs to servic like health surance or ernment support.

When the AIDS epimic started 1981, journalist and LGBTQ civil rights tor Eric Marc was a young gay man, tryg like so many others to navigate the post-Stonewall era of beg out and gay New York Cy.

”For the current season of his popular “Makg Gay History” podst, “Comg of Age Durg the AIDS Crisis, ” Marc his own experience to chronicle the early days of the epimic his native New York figur heavily the early episos. That was soon after Larry Kramer and five other gay men found Gay Men’s Health Crisis 1982 to raise money for AIDS rearch and take re of the sick and dyg. Ordarily, Marc, the podst host, draws on a rare archive of 100 terviews wh LGBTQ people, both notable and obscure, that he rerd 30 years ago for his groundbreakg 1992 book, reissued 2002 as Makg Gay History: The Half-Century Fight for Lbian and Gay Equal typilly featur someone he’s terviewed for each episo, om inic trans activist Sylvia Rivera to straight ally advice lumnist Dear Abby.

IT'S BEEN 35 YEARS SCE GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS BEGAN LARRY KRAMER'S LIVG ROOM

Although Marc wasn’t an activist, AIDS touched his own life and that of everyone he knew New York the early his d memoir’s six episos, Marc crafts a richly tailed history of the first of the AIDS epimic, at s epicenter New York Cy, om his own, very personal vantage pot, by weavg his own prent-day rellectns wh those of iends, fay, and the people he met along the season’s first episo begs on July 3, 1981, when Marc, who’s jt graduated om llege, spots an obscure headle The New York Tim: “Rare Cancer Seen 41 Homosexuals. ” It’s somethg he’s never heard of episo two, ’s April 30, 1983, and Marc attends GMHC’s sold-out benef performance of the Rglg Brothers & Barnum and Bailey Circ, featurg Patti Lupone, at Madison Square Garn, along wh 17, 600 other gay men.

His first client, Efthems, a gay, Greek immigrant, di jt a few days after Marc viss him the hospal. His other client, Jimmy, a straight, IV-dg er, asks Marc to help wre his logy—a msage to his 12-year old son—which he livers at Jimmy’s sparsely attend funeral at the end of then, Marc’s own iends have started to get sick and 9 nclus wh the publitn of his book, Makg Gay History, 1992, followg a two-year, cross-untry journey to terview nearly 100 LGBTQ historymakers and said he’ll ntue chroniclg the early years of the AIDS crisis for Season 10—but through the voic of six people wh very different experienc om his own as a whe, middle-class, gay man. Teachg Gay HistoryMakg Gay History has ught on wh listeners worldwi, who’ve download more than 4.

EXCLIVE TERVIEW WH THE FOUNR OF GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS

New York Cy has jt fund a pilot project to brg Makg Gay History to several middle schools next year. “LGBTQ history belongs schools—and almost nobody knows this history, ” said Marc, who’s bee both a storyteller and himself was not aware of the pre-Stonewall stggle for LGBTQ equaly, he said, until he started rearchg his origal Makg Gay History book.

In 1983 Larry Kramer, one of the founrs of Gay Men’s Health Crisis, was kicked out of the anizatn he helped create, due to his loud and often ntroversial methods of raisg public awarens about the AIDS, over 30 years later, The Normal Heart wrer is beg honored by that very same group at s upg Sprg Gala, a move that has generated s own noise wh the spher of HIV and AIDS activism as well as the greater LGBT the noise has been predomantly joyful. ”The horrors of the anizatn’s early years — ignorance about what ed the vis, upled wh risg ath tolls the gay muny and ernment actn — were ptured The Normal Heart, a play wrten by Kramer that was adapted to an award-wng HBO film last year, starrg A-listers like Julia Roberts, Mark Ruffalo, and Matt star power has helped she a new spotlight on HIV and AIDS, which is one of the reasons Kramer is beg honored by GMHC this year. Gay men were dyg every day.

GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS (GMHC) GAY MEN'S HEALTH CRISIS (GMHC)

As an Asian Amerin, he brgs a different face than one the public ually associated wh the fight agast the vis, which he hop will steer the nversatn toward the high risks associated wh men of example, the CDC reports that black gay and bisexual men ag 13 to 24 had twice as many new HIV fectns as whe or Hispanic gay and bisexual men of the same age group 2010. Fear was spreadg rapidly sce The New York Tim published the first article about AIDS, tled "Rare Cancer Seen 41 Homosexuals, " July 3 of that year. There is no way to put to words how hard and sry was to be a gay man durg that time.