“Maybe AIDS activism, and I suspect I am, although I never think about it. I was thrilled that Act-Up came back to life at a Barcelona AIDS conference many years after I founded it in 1987. It was a direct action protest organisation that chose government agencies and corporations as targets to publicise a lack of treatment and funding for people with AIDS.

I was always interested to see that the publicity Act-Up got was really rather supportive during this time as in the old days we were condemned out of hand.”

“I’m still an activist, as if I see something I can do to stick my nose in, through a phone call or a letter, I do it, but I’m not involved in an organisation. I’m called a lot for advise or use of my name – you can never stop being an activist if you’re serious about it. I’ve been so front and centre about it I no longer have to go out and hit them over the head so much! Having said that, I’m sure there are a great many young gay men in America who have no idea who I am!”

FUTURE OF AIDS ACTIVISM

“I don’t see any new life bubbling up, and people are becoming complacent. If prominent people are involved in AIDS charites in the UK how have we come this far? I thought we’d broken down enough barriers to become an international network, being responsibly visible, like the International Red Cross, something like a United Nations without the back-biting.

We’re as visible as we are; yet in terms of power we’re still totally invisible. That’s really shocking – we think that visibility gives us power, but it doesn’t; it has to be fought for for ever.”

HEALTH ISSUES

"Everything came to an abrupt stop when I got sick, and I was given 6 months to live. It was a true miracle for me that a new drug (Adefivir) appeared, which controls Hepatitis B. That gave me some breathing time, as shortly after then, liver transplants became available for those co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis B. I was the 22nd co-infected person to receive a liver. I’ve been so, so lucky, as from the word go I’ve never got sick, since the late 70s when I was infected. So many are dead, so why I’m alive I have no idea.”

Ill-health did not, however, curtailed his literary work. “I’m working on a new novel, which is a history of America combined with a history of American homosexuality and a history of AIDS. I know it’s very ambitious, and I was terrified I wouldn’t finish it. However now I’m so well, I’m back at work and I think it’ll take another couple of years. It’s called The American People and it’s 2500 pages already! It’ll have everything I have to say in it. I’ve never worked on such a big canvas before, and it’s a huge challenge!”

The book was published as a novel by Farrar, Straus & Giroux in 2015. Kramer and his partner, architectural designer David Webster, were together from 1991 until Kramer's death. Webster's ending of his relationship with Kramer in the 1970s had inspired Kramer to write Faggots. When asked about their reunion decades later, Webster replied: "He'd grown up, I'd grown up."

Larry Kramer books currently available from Amazon

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