Did you know that Dr. Fauci appeared in the sequel to Larry Kramer’s HIV drama “The Normal Heart”?
COVID-19 response, few people realize that a character based on him was included in The Destiny of Me, the sequel to the renowned gay author and HIV activist Larry Kramer‘s autobiographical 1985 HIV drama The Normal Heart.Modern viewers may know The Normal Heart from its 2014 TV film adaptation which stars Mark Ruffalo, Julia Roberts, and Alfred Molina alongside gay actors like Matt Bomer, Jim Parsons, Joe Mantello, and Jonathan Groff.
In it, Ruffalo plays Ned Weeks, a passionate New York City writer — based on Kramer — who becomes a fierce HIV activist as his lover and friends are struck down by the deadly epidemic.The play was based on Kramer’s real-life experiences as a founding member of the Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC) and the AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power (ACT UP).
The doctor in the play is based on Dr. Linda Laubenstein who treated some of NYC’s first HIV cases. Ned’s reluctantly helpful brother Arthur was also based on Kramer’s real-life brother who was an attorney with the same first name.The Normal Heart ends with Ned’s lover dying, and Ned coughing and feeling ill, an indication that he too has contracted HIV and might soon die of it.
However, at the start of The Destiny of Me, which premiered off-Broadway in 1992, Ned has checked into the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to undergo an experimental treatment for HIV that has reduced the viral load by up to 90 percent in mice.The name of Ned’s attending physician is Dr.
