At the time, Larry Kramer‘s 2004 speech, “Tragedy of Today’s Gays,” inflamed the LGBTQ community on his harsh rhetoric on sex and drug addition within the LGBTQ community.
Looking at his speech years later, what is most prescient is his focus on “the elite cabal” that has organized in the US since the early 70’s. Licking their wounds from Vietnam, the civil rights movement, the women’s movement, this “cabal” gathered and organized with lazar-like focus to shape an America to their beliefs. Those beliefs? Only people that look like them, are as rich as they are, can control the country. His message was not only for the LGBTQ community to stay focused and organize, but for anyone that believes in true democracy, voting rights, equality for all, to stay focused and get involved.
This portion of his speech could have been delivered last week and make perfect sense.
Surprisingly I was the only camera guy in the room. At the time I was working on a film, Rock Bottom: Gay Men and Meth, with Colin Weil and Joe Lovett, and wanted to hear Larry’s take on why so many gay men were self destructing after the acute phase of the AIDS epidemic had passed. This excerpt is from Kramer’s speech he delivered at Cooper Union, New York City, November 11, 2004.