In the capital, Williams began to approach producers and other influencers in popularising shows with same-sex couples.
NEW DELHI: A fortuitous trip to Delhi in 2017 had led to 35-year-old LGBTQ activist James Williams finding his partner in the capital, and he eventually moved from the US to Delhi. On April 28, he breathed his last at a Noida hospital, succumbing to Covid-19.
His partner, Ayush Thakur (25), whom Williams had met through a dating application, said while they could survive the first wave, the recent one hit them both. Williams had comorbidities, including high blood pressure, and his oxygen level was impacted.
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.
James Williams, Gay Activist in India, Dies at 35
An American, he hoped to improve the representation of gay people in Indian media in the manner of “Will & Grace.” He died of Covid-19.
James Williams in 2011. He moved to India to live with the man who would become his fiancé; he had also started an oral history project to help him understand his past in Alabama.Credit.Eliza Borné
Published May 4, 2021Updated May 11, 2021
This obituary is part of a series about people who have died in the coronavirus pandemic. Read about others
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James Williams was a gay man who grew up in a conservative and religious milieu in Alabama, where homophobia was rampant. But over time, he saw the United States move toward greater tolerance, which he attributed partly to nonthreatening television shows like “Will & Grace,” the long-running sitcom with an openly gay lead character.