1,112 and Counting

1,112 and Counting is the name of an article written by Larry Kramer in 1983. Published in the gay newspaper the New York Native, it was perhaps the first essay written about the then-nascent AIDS crisis. It begins with a summary of HIV's toll thus far and ends with a call to direct action. The essay was dismissed by much of the gay community at the time. This was in part because it criticized widespread sexual practices by some gay men at the time (casual, anonymous sex), and in part because Kramer was said to be a self-hating gay man, based on his novel Faggots - which also criticized casual, anonymous sex.

Nevertheless, in its stridency and urgency, "1,112 and Counting" influenced much of queer writing for the decade to come. It also helped cement Kramer's reputation as an advocate for gay men's rights.