Power 50: Larry Kramer

There's power in having come back from the dead, even if Kramer's demise (reported in an Associated Press headline in 2001 after a liver transplant) was greatly exaggerated. Throughout his career, he's had the power to make waves. He wrote Faggots in 1978, co-founded GMHC, launched ACT UP, tapped his experiences in The Normal Heart (whose film adaptation was a huge, Emmy-winning HBO hit in 2014), and this year published the first volume of his massive novel on America and AIDS, The American People. The HBO documentary about him, Larry Kramer In Love & Anger, premieres June 29, four days after his 80th birthday.

SLIDESHOW | Out's 9th Annual Power List