The Normal Heart: the story of the AIDS crisis

The Normal Heart is a largely autobiographical play by Larry Kramer.

It focuses on the rise of the HIV-AIDS crisis in New York City between 1981 and 1984, as seen through the eyes of writer/activist Ned Weeks, the gay founder of a prominent HIV advocacy group. Ned prefers loud public confrontations to the calmer, more private strategies favored by his associates, friends, and closeted lover Felix Turner. Their differences of opinion lead to frequent arguments that threaten to undermine their mutual goal.

After a successful 1985 Off-Broadway production at The Public Theater, the play was revived in Los Angeles and London and again Off-Broadway in 2004. A Broadway debut opened in April 2011.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Normal_Heart


I am halfway through watching the film version of this play. It is heartbreaking! The persecution and lack of assistance shown to the gay community in New York in the early 1980's when AIDS swept like a plague killing hundreds of gay men, is absolutely mind-blowing. With something like four billions dollars being spent on healthcare back then, the Dr who was heading the research was offered a pultry £9,000 dollars to fund her research. I'm only halfway through as I've said, but already you can see that back then, becasue it was only considered to be a "gay disease" (first called Gay Cancer), nobody was bothered. Men in the gay communities were dropping like flies and no one seemed to care.

It's hard to believe that so recently the attitude to sufferers of AIDS was so cruel.
I remember reading of children being shunned at school in America because they had been born with the virus, or one of their parents had it.

I don't remember the attitudes being so bad here, but I think Princess Diana had a lot to do with that.

Syl wrote:It's hard to believe that so recently the attitude to sufferers of AIDS was so cruel.
I remember reading of children being shunned at school in America because they had been born with the virus, or one of their parents had it.

I don't remember the attitudes being so bad here, but I think Princess Diana had a lot to do with that.

You're absolutely correct Syl. As soon as everyone saw that iconic picture of Diana shaking hands with an AIDS victim in Canada, people everywhere heaved a sigh of relief, realised you couldn't catch it from a bus seat and started to feel real sympathy for the poor people who got this dreadful virus.

There was some wonderful news reels of her comforting AIDS victims. Some people say she was just a spoiled woman leading a hedonistic lifestyle, I think she did more for some of the most shunned in society than any politician ever did.....and probably ever will.

Syl wrote:There was some wonderful news reels of her comforting AIDS victims. Some people say she was just a spoiled woman leading a hedonistic lifestyle, I think she did more for some of the most shunned in society than any politician ever did.....and probably ever will.

She was no saint - who is? - but as you say, she did an awful lot for the AIDS cause and others worthy causes like the land mines.