James Williams, American Gay Activist Working in India, Dies of COVID
Williams had pitched TV shows to producers in India in hopes of improving LGBTQ+ representation in the nation. May 05 2021 6:35 PM EDT
James Williams, an American writer and gay activist who was seeking to improve LGBTQ+ representation in media in India, has died of COVID-19.
Williams, 35, died Thursday in a hospital near Delhi,
The New York Times reports. He had tested positive for the virus four days earlier.
The Alabama-born Williams became a personal assistant to writer Daphne Merkin after he graduated from Columbia University in 2008, and he traveled around the world with her. His love of travel endured, and on a vacation in India in 2017, he met Ayush Thakur. Williams moved to India to live with Thakur, and the two men became engaged. They were trying to secure a visa for Thakur so they could be married in the U.S.