Larry Kramer was a fighter and had something to say until the very end.

A trailblazer for the gay community, he was responsible for helping shine a national spotlight on the HIV/AIDS pandemic from the very beginning.

Born in Connecticut in 1935, Kramer attended Yale University, where he studied English literature.  

He earned an Oscar nomination for his adaptation of the D.H. Lawrence property, "Women in Love" in 1971.

Wanting to explore the homosexual experience with his writing, Kramer published a 1978 novel that used a gay slur as the title. The novel painted a picture of gay life in pre-AIDS New York City. To this day the book is considered one of the best-selling gay novels of all time.

In the early 80s, Kramer helped found The Gay Men’s Health Crisis, the first service organization for people infected with HIV/AIDS.  I last spoke with Larry in 2018, and he had this to say about creating the not-for-profit.

“I realized we had to do something, nobody was interested in us, we couldn’t get any media attention. And I called a group of friends into this very room, one of the doctor’s from NYU came to talk with us and said, 'I think this is the tip of the iceberg – you gotta do something.' And somebody said, 'Gay men certainly have a health crisis,' and I said, 'That’s our name,'” said Kramer.

Kramer, who tested positive with HIV in the 80s, also brought the AIDS crisis to the stage. His largely autobiographical drama, "The Normal Heart," opened at The Public Theatre in 1985. It debuted on Broadway almost three decades later, where it won the Tony Award for Best Revival.

“'The Normal Heart' is our history, I could not have written it if not so many of us had needlessly died,” Kramer said in his acceptance speech.

In 2013, Kramer was awarded the humanitarian Tony, The Isabelle Stevenson Award for his activism, and that included his work with creating The Gay Men’s Health Crisis and ACT UP.

Entertainment powerhouse, Ryan Murphy brought "The Normal Heart" to the screen in 2014 with Mark Ruffalo, Matt Bomer, and Julia Roberts.

Kramer was working up until his passing. His two-part anthology, "The American People," focusing on his take on historical figures like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and their alleged homosexual relationships, was published in two parts: part one in 2015, and part two this past January.

He is survived by his husband, David Webster. Larry Kramer was 84 years old.