About Paul Popham
Paul Graham Popham was an American gay rights activist who was a founder of the Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) and served as its president from 1981 until 1985. He also helped found and was chairman of the AIDS Action Council, a lobbying organization in Washington, D.C. He was the basis for the character of Bruce Niles in Larry Kramer's The Normal Heart, which was one of the first plays to address the HIV/AIDS crisis. Popham was a Vietnam War veteran who was awarded the Bronze Star Medal for valor in 1966, serving as a first lieutenant in the Fifth Air Cavalry. Popham became politically active in 1981 after learning about the AIDS epidemic through a newspaper article titled "Rare Cancer Seen in 41 Homosexuals", published in The New York Times on July 3, 1981.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.