Sylvester, loved boy
I was just organizing my music collection and ran across "I Feel Real" by Sylvester. How many know that Sylvester started having relationships with men when he was eight? And with no regret or recrimination, either. He would go on to produce a number one disco hit which became the theme music to gay liberation. I used to see him in the Castro all the time and we once talked about NAMBLA when he saw me at the Gay Pride Parade wearing my "boylove" t-shirt. That was probably about 1986. He was openly supportive as were many gay men, still, at that time. Sadly, he died of AIDS (or was it HIV by then?) in 1989. A real bummer year for us both. "I Feel Real" www.youtube.com/watch?v=VyAHULpMXKQ
source: 'Sylvester, loved boy' by Eric Tazelaar; www.boychat.org/messages/1535841.htm; BoyChat; 14 December 2019
The young Sylvester was often accused of effeminacy and recognized his own homosexuality from an early age. At the age of eight, he engaged in sexual activity with a far older man at the church - at the time rumored to be the church organist - although he would always maintain that this was consensual and not an example of sexual molestation. Sylvester was taken to a doctor after receiving injuries during anal sex with this man. It was this doctor who informed Letha that her son was gay, something that she could not accept, viewing homosexual activity as a perversion and a sin. News of Sylvester's homosexual activity soon spread through the church congregation, and feeling unwelcome, he ceased his attendance at age 13.
[Source used in Wikipedia-article: Gamson, Joshua (2005). The Fabulous Sylvester: The Legend, the Music, the 70s in San Francisco.]
source: 'Sylvester (singer)'; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_(singer); Wikipedia; Website consulted: 17 December 2019