Kraus moved to San Francisco in 1970 where he learned to practice politics from the Castro camera store owner and later City Supervisor Harvey Milk, who was among the first openly gay elected officials in the United States.

Through the Harvey Milk Democratic Club, Kraus conducted a "safe sex" campaign, attempting to bring awareness to the gay community of the dangers of unsafe sexual practices.

He traveled to Paris to be treated with the drug HPA-23, believed at the time to boost the immune systems of AIDS patients.

[4] When it became clear the drug had failed, Kraus returned home to San Francisco where he died on January 25, 1986, at the age of 38.

He was also a central figure in Randy Shilts' book And the Band Played On about the early response to the AIDS epidemic.