Sylvester James, who performed as “Sylvester,” is an extraordinary figure in LGBTQ history. He became the first, and perhaps only, gay “disco diva.”
In the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, he was an unapologetically queer presence in an era not very warm to LGBTQ voices, an artist who embraced the gender spectrum decades before ‘gender queer’ became part of the national conversation.
At the age of 41 #Sylvester died of AIDS-related complication but his voice, videos, and songs continue to inspire us all to dream, sing, and dance as free as we can. For instance, he attained particular recognition in San Francisco, where he was awarded the key to the city. In 2005, he was posthumously inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame, while his life has been recorded in a biography and made the subject of both a documentary and a musical.
In December 2016, #Billboard magazine ranked him as the 59th most successful dance artist of all-time.
