Larry Kramer: People Who Use PrEP are Cowardly

Hero visionary firebrand and all the other stuff that's going to get trotted out when The Normal Heart airs.

There are a lot of things Larry Kramer is and a lot more things he is not. He is not kind compassionate or empathetic.

His voice is irrelevant in any discussion of prevention in 2014.

Goodnight Larry. They made your fricking movie.

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Little known fact: Larry Kramer and Arthur Laurents were great friends for decades...until Larry said something to Arthur that Arthur felt was "unforgivable." (NOTE: Arthur frequently said unforgivable things to his friends, the minute anyone said anything back, Arthur would deem it unforgivable and not speak to that friend for days/months/years.)

But after Larry said whatever it was he said to Arthur, they never spoke again. Arthur went to his grave not having forgiven his good friend Larry Kramer for whatever it was Larry may have said.

I doubt if Larry even remembers...

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In more than two decades of dating, I've only seriously dated two positive guys, and both long before PrEP was a thing. I always wondered what I'd do if I were ever faced with the prospect of another relationship with someone who was positive. I've seen what HIV drugs do to people, and I think I probably would chose condoms over Truvada. It's not a judgement on anyone who would choose it, but I've been through chemo twice, and while I know it's not the same, it's the only frame of reference I have when I consider what the effects of a powerful antiviral must feel like.

All that said, cowardly wouldn't be the first word that popped into my head when it comes to people who use PrEP. That Larry is a crazy old heifer.

Updated On: 5/22/14 at 10:53 PM

Kramer may have reasonable objections to this kind of PREP use. But I'm not sure how "cowardly" - perhaps the most ineptly used word - applies in this instance.

I think there's a legitimate and reasonable argument to be had about the use of PrEP possibly creating resistant strains of the virus, and a legitimate and reasonable argument to be had about taking such strong medication to prevent rather than to treat.

But Kramer decided to opt out of legitimate and reasonable decades ago.

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"I suppose the exact same point about drug resistant virus could be made about treatment at all, couldn't it?"

There isn't much precedence for the regular taking of an antiretroviral in an uninfected induvidual, to my knowledge. Vaccines aside, I can't think of many instances in which anyone would take an antibiotic/antiviral/etc. on a regular basis (not short-term, like following a surgery, traveling, or so on) if they were not already infected or at imemdiate risk of infection.

But since HIV is, at present, incapable of being vaccinated, having an at-risk population that is constantly under dosage of one of the few reliable means of treatment justifiably leads to concern for further mutation.

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Oh, I totally agree- Kramer does more harm than good with his warped perception of reality. He's pretty sex-negative and, despite his position as an activist, often strikes me as dealing with a lot of self-hatred for being gay.

(Not to mention he's an aggressive self-promoter and horrendously unaware of his own financial privilege).

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Updated On: 5/23/14 at 11:09 AM

I kind of enjoyed seeing Streisand strike back at Kramer following his continued attacks on her.
"Larry had the rights for the last 15 years years and he couldn't get it made, either. Those are the facts."

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""The Normal Heart" is a great play, but the rest of his writings - plays, books, screenplays, letters - are self indulgent crap. "

You don't like the film of Women in Love or, *cough* Lost Horizon?

As many as it takes, clearly.

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From an Op-Ed in today's Times (which has a needlessly provocative title):

The C.D.C. acted because blood samples from the famous 2010 iPrEx study showed that gay men who took Truvada seven days a week reduced their chances of infection by 99 percent. A 2011 trial, HPTN 052, of heterosexual couples in which only one was infected, showed that when the infected partners took their triple-therapy cocktails regularly, they were 96 percent less likely to infect their lovers.

And in a new and startling development, preliminary results were released in March from a European study following 767 gay and straight couples who didn’t use condoms and whose blood tests confirmed that the infected partners were taking their drugs. The pairs have had sex an estimated 30,400 times since the study began two years ago, and H.I.V. was not transmitted between them even once.

I would like Larry Kramer to tell me who in those 767 gay and straight couples in the European study were COWARDS? Serious research was going on and leading to breakthroughs and what was Larry Kramer doing? He was outing Jason Gould and demanding a million dollars for his movie rights.

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I have never taken Truvada, so can't speak personally of its effects. I am fortunate to not have been on any of the older drugs which caused lypodystrophy. I was on Atazanavir for about 5 years and developed kidney stones from it which was hellish, but went away when I changed over to Darunavir.
I DON"T WANT ANYONE ELSE TO BECOME HIV POSITIVE, BUT...
If you don't have to take a drug, I don't think you should, as there really is no knowing what side effects you may have to deal with. There are still less risky ways to stay safe, like using a condom.
People who used PREP as a sort of "morning after" pill when they slipped up was one thing, but now you have these guys taking it long term. I wouldn't call it cowardly, I'd call it foolish. But the guys who are doing this, are generally already doing stupid things like taking steroids and "Party N Playing" with crystal meth, so their mentality is, "Hey it's just another drug."
In Vancouver we have the philosophy of "harm-reduction" which has been implemented, not without controversy, to deal with HIV transmission among heroin injection users: a "safe injection site" with nurses on staff and clean needles operates in the city. But, I find it difficult to see any way to reduce the harm done by crytal meth use and would rather see monies spent helping these individuals with their addictions.

If I had one thing in my own life, a bit of wisdom, that I could impart to younger guys, it would be work on your self-esteem and don't try to get self-validation by letting every hot guy who hits on you dump his load up you.

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