Read Online The Normal Heart and The Destiny of Me: Two Plays by Larry Kramer - Free Book Online
Authors: Larry Kramer
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get it from all sides.
NED: You make it sound like that’s all that being gay means.
BRUCE: That’s all it does mean!
MICKEY: It’s the only thing that makes us different.
NED: I don’t want to be considered different.
BRUCE: Neither do I, actually.
MICKEY: Well, I do.
BRUCE: Well, you are!
NED: Why is it we can only talk about our sexuality, and so relentlessly? You know, Mickey, all we’ve created is generations of guys who can’t deal with each other as anything buterections. We can’t even get a meeting with the mayor’s gay assistant!
TOMMY: I’m very interested in setting up some sort of services for the patients. We’ve got to start thinking about them.
BRUCE: (
Whispering to
NED .) Who’s he?
TOMMY: He heard about you and he found you and here he is. My name is Tommy Boatwright. . . (
To
NED .) Why don’t you write that down? Tommy Boatwright. In real life, I’m a hospital administrator. And I’m a Southern bitch.
NED: Welcome to gay politics.
BRUCE: Ned, I won’t have anything to do with any organization that tells people how to live their lives.
NED: It’s not telling them. It’s a recommendation.
MICKEY: With a shotgun to their heads.
BRUCE: It’s interfering with their civil rights.
MICKEY: Fucking as a civil right? Don’t we just wish.
TOMMY: What if we put it in the form of a recommendation from gay doctors? So that way we’re just the conduit.
NED: I can’t get any gay doctor to go on record and say publicly what Emma wants.
BRUCE: The fortunes they’ve made off our being sick, you’d think they could have warned us. (
Suddenly noticing an envelope.
) What the fuck is this?
MICKEY: Unh, oh!
BRUCE: Look at this! Was this your idea?
NED: I’m looking. I’m not seeing. What don’t I see?
MICKEY: What we put for our return address.
NED: You mean the word “gay” is on the envelope?
BRUCE: You’re damn right. Instead of just the initials. Who did it?
NED: Well, maybe it was Pierre who designed it. Maybe it was a mistake at the printers. But it is the name we chose for this organization . . .
BRUCE: You chose. I didn’t want “gay” in it.
MICKEY: No, we all voted. That was one of those meetings when somebody actually showed up.
NED: Bruce, I think it’s interesting that nobody noticed until now. You’ve been stuffing them all week at your apartment.
BRUCE: We can’t send them out.
NED: We have to if we want anybody to come to the dance. They were late from the printers as it is.
BRUCE: We can go through and scratch out the word with a Magic Marker.
NED: Ten thousand times? Look, I feel sympathy for young guys still living at home on Long Island with their parents, but most men getting these . . . Look at you, in your case what difference does it make? You live alone, you own your own apartment, your mother lives in another state . . .
BRUCE: What about my mailman?
( MICKEY
lets out a little laughing yelp, then clears his throat.
)
NED: You don’t expect me to take that seriously?
BRUCE: Yes, I do!
NED: What about your doorman?
BRUCE: What about him?
NED: Why don’t you worry about him? All those cute little Calvin Klein numbers you parade under his nose, he thinks you’re playing poker with the boys?
BRUCE: You don’t have any respect for anyone who doesn’t think like you do, do you?
NED: Bruce, I don’t agree with you about this. I think it’s imperative that we all grow up now and come out of the closet.
MICKEY: Ladies, behave! Ned, you don’t think much of our sexual revolution. You say it all the time.
NED: No, I say I don’t think much of promiscuity. And what’s that got to do with gay envelopes?
MICKEY: But you’ve certainly done your share.
NED: That doesn’t mean I approve of it or like myself for doing it.
MICKEY: But not all of us feel that way. And we don’t like to hear the word “promiscuous” used pejoratively.
BRUCE: Or so publicly.
NED: Where the world can hear it, Bruce?
MICKEY: Sex is liberating.
NED: You make it sound like that’s all that being gay means.
BRUCE: That’s all it does mean!
MICKEY: It’s the only thing that makes us different.
NED: I don’t want to be considered different.
BRUCE: Neither do I, actually.
MICKEY: Well, I do.
BRUCE: Well, you are!
NED: Why is it we can only talk about our sexuality, and so relentlessly? You know, Mickey, all we’ve created is generations of guys who can’t deal with each other as anything buterections. We can’t even get a meeting with the mayor’s gay assistant!
TOMMY: I’m very interested in setting up some sort of services for the patients. We’ve got to start thinking about them.
BRUCE: (
Whispering to
NED .) Who’s he?
TOMMY: He heard about you and he found you and here he is. My name is Tommy Boatwright. . . (
To
NED .) Why don’t you write that down? Tommy Boatwright. In real life, I’m a hospital administrator. And I’m a Southern bitch.
NED: Welcome to gay politics.
BRUCE: Ned, I won’t have anything to do with any organization that tells people how to live their lives.
NED: It’s not telling them. It’s a recommendation.
MICKEY: With a shotgun to their heads.
BRUCE: It’s interfering with their civil rights.
MICKEY: Fucking as a civil right? Don’t we just wish.
TOMMY: What if we put it in the form of a recommendation from gay doctors? So that way we’re just the conduit.
NED: I can’t get any gay doctor to go on record and say publicly what Emma wants.
BRUCE: The fortunes they’ve made off our being sick, you’d think they could have warned us. (
Suddenly noticing an envelope.
) What the fuck is this?
MICKEY: Unh, oh!
BRUCE: Look at this! Was this your idea?
NED: I’m looking. I’m not seeing. What don’t I see?
MICKEY: What we put for our return address.
NED: You mean the word “gay” is on the envelope?
BRUCE: You’re damn right. Instead of just the initials. Who did it?
NED: Well, maybe it was Pierre who designed it. Maybe it was a mistake at the printers. But it is the name we chose for this organization . . .
BRUCE: You chose. I didn’t want “gay” in it.
MICKEY: No, we all voted. That was one of those meetings when somebody actually showed up.
NED: Bruce, I think it’s interesting that nobody noticed until now. You’ve been stuffing them all week at your apartment.
BRUCE: We can’t send them out.
NED: We have to if we want anybody to come to the dance. They were late from the printers as it is.
BRUCE: We can go through and scratch out the word with a Magic Marker.
NED: Ten thousand times? Look, I feel sympathy for young guys still living at home on Long Island with their parents, but most men getting these . . . Look at you, in your case what difference does it make? You live alone, you own your own apartment, your mother lives in another state . . .
BRUCE: What about my mailman?
( MICKEY
lets out a little laughing yelp, then clears his throat.
)
NED: You don’t expect me to take that seriously?
BRUCE: Yes, I do!
NED: What about your doorman?
BRUCE: What about him?
NED: Why don’t you worry about him? All those cute little Calvin Klein numbers you parade under his nose, he thinks you’re playing poker with the boys?
BRUCE: You don’t have any respect for anyone who doesn’t think like you do, do you?
NED: Bruce, I don’t agree with you about this. I think it’s imperative that we all grow up now and come out of the closet.
MICKEY: Ladies, behave! Ned, you don’t think much of our sexual revolution. You say it all the time.
NED: No, I say I don’t think much of promiscuity. And what’s that got to do with gay envelopes?
MICKEY: But you’ve certainly done your share.
NED: That doesn’t mean I approve of it or like myself for doing it.
MICKEY: But not all of us feel that way. And we don’t like to hear the word “promiscuous” used pejoratively.
BRUCE: Or so publicly.
NED: Where the world can hear it, Bruce?
MICKEY: Sex is liberating.
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