“I was so unhappy as a child in Washington I figured if I'm going to Yale, I am going to start a new life. I'll change my name to my middle name. So I was known for my four years at Yale as David Kramer.” IfsYearsChildrenNamesKnownFourMiddleUnhappyFour YearsNew LifeYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“When I graduated [from Yale], I went back to Larry [Kramer]. But when I go to Yale reunions, there are still people who call me David.” PeopleStillsCall MeLarryReunionYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“That's why I tried to kill myself when I was a student [in Yale]. I thought I was the only one there.” StudentsYale Author:Kevin Sessums
“I have never heard that referred to before, that term: Jewish men from Yale.” MenTermHeardYale Author:Kevin Sessums
“We didn't know each other [with Larry Kramer at Yale], but we had a lot of mutual friends.” KnowsMutualLarryYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“There was a Yale even before Larry [Kramer] and I got there, and there were three designations of students: "white shoe," "brown shoe," and "black shoe." "White shoe" people were kind of the ur-preppies from high-class backgrounds. "Brown shoe" people were kind of the high school student-council presidents who were snatched up and brushed up a little bit to be sent out into the world. "Black shoe" people were beyond the pale. They were chemistry majors and things like that.” PeopleWorldKindLittlesSchoolThreeBitsBlackPresidentWhiteClassStudentsMajorsLittle BitHigh SchoolShoesBackgroundsBrownChemistryPaleCouncilLarryYaleDesignationHigh School StudentsKramerHigh ClassWhite ShoesStudent Council Author:Kevin Sessums
“"Weenie" was definitely a word we used at Yale back then. But I'm not sure you were one, Larry [Kramer]. Also, you were going by a different name.” DifferentUsedNamesNot SureLarryYaleDifferent NamesKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“Larry [Kramer] and I often disagree. There was the whole meshuggaas we went through about his donating his papers to Yale, and I disagreed with him on a number of things about that. You wanted a gay center.” WholeWantedNumbersGayPaperDisagreePapersLarryYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“Those people are seen, I assume, by Larry [Kramer] as writing partly about gay issues and problems, whether it's on the surface or not, and I am not. But another thing is when we met, there still wasn't exactly a gay/straight divide in the minds of a lot of straight people. There weren't any gay people, as far as we knew, at Yale.” PeopleWritingMindStillsProblemIssuesMetsGayAssumingSurfaceDividesLarryGay PeopleYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“One of the few nice things about [time in Yale] was you got to know people before there were labels on them, so you got to know them as people, not as either gay or straight. Because as far as we knew, we thought everyone was straight.” PeopleKnowsNiceGayLabelsNice ThingsYale Author:Kevin Sessums
“If someone had come up to me at Yale and asked me how many homosexuals there were in my class, I would have said I don't think there are any. There may have been a few who were shy with girls. You have to understand, this was the 1950s.” IfsThinkingMayHas BeensSaidGirlClassCome UpShyHomosexualYale Author:Kevin Sessums
“Back in Kansas City, I associated Harvard with sort of gnarly guys who wore capes for effect in a kind of Oscar Wilde scene. Even though I also knew there was such a thing as the Harvard-Yale game, I was still a little surprised that Harvard had a football team. I just assumed if there were such a thing as gay people, that they were nothing like us. Little did I know that probably half the swim team at Yale was gay.” PeopleIfsKnowsKindLittlesStillsGuyGamesCitiesHalfTeamEffectsFootballSceneGaySwimOscarsHarvardGay PeopleFootball TeamKansasYaleCapesWildeKansas CityGnarlySwim Team Author:Kevin Sessums
“[Larry Kramer] got really mad at me once. The precipitating incident was a speech at Yale by the first President Bush's Secretary of Heath and Human Services, Louis Sullivan, against which Larry led a demonstration. He got the demonstrators to drown out Sullivan's speech, which wasn't allowed.” FirstsHumansPresidentSpeechMadSecretaryIncidentsPresident BushDemonstrationLarryYaleKramerHuman Service Author:Kevin Sessums
“[Larry Kramer] even wrote this angry letter to the president of Yale, and in it he said what he said to us, that he was so disappointed in his straight friends because of AIDS and everything. He wrote the letter around March. And in it he wrote, "I usually go to the Trillins for Christmas, but I just couldn't do it this year."” YearsSaidPresidentLettersAngryAidsMarchDisappointedLarryYaleKramer Author:Kevin Sessums
“I think it's a Jewish Yale custom. I wasn't aware that other people celebrated Christmas. My wife was very big on Christmas, and I was very big on my wife.” PeopleThinkingBigsWifeMy WifeCustomsYale Author:Kevin Sessums
