Sir Lady Java, a pioneering transgender performer and activist who bravely defied discriminatory laws and police brutality as a Los Angeles nightclub star in the 1960s, died Saturday following a stroke, close friends confirmed Tuesday. He was 82 years old.
“It’s a huge loss to the community,” said actress Hailie Sahar, who is set to play Java in a biopic and has been one of her main caregivers for the past two years. “He started the LGBTQ+ movement before there was an LGBTQ+ community to support him.”
Lady Java, as she is known, has been working as a drag queen, singer, dancer, comedian and “feminine actress” at a time when cross-dressing was not allowed without a permit, winning crowds in straight clubs and running in circles LA luminaries such as Lena Horne.
Java was a hat maker and designer, skills he incorporated into his ensembles. He got her to wait tables at the Redd Foxx Club on La Cienega Boulevard in West Hollywood, but she was noticed for her beauty and invited to the stage, where she was a natural. Soon he was performing regularly, and alongside big names like Richard Pryor, friends said.
“His funny bits made sense,” said Sahar, also a transgender woman known for her performance as Lulu Abundance on the award-winning FX series “Pose.”
In 1967, Java joined the American Civil Liberties Union in a lawsuit challenging his arrest by Los Angeles police for a warrantless search, a violation of what was then known as Law No. 9, local law of intersection. He eventually lost his case in the California Supreme Court, but the law was overturned two years later.
Java’s stance was preceded by two years by a similar anti-LGBTQ+ police riot at the Stonewall Inn in New York, and has never received the same attention. However, it has gained much of the spotlight in recent years as historians and queer activists seek to bring more attention to the previously overlooked heroes of the queer rights movement — especially transgender people like Java.
“The important thing about Java,” said Sahar, “is that Java came long before the stadium was built, long before the Stonewall riots in New York, so he was really a pioneer.”
Sahar said that he first heard the name Java 15 years ago, when a man who was practicing told him that it reminded him of Java. Sahar said he went home and started learning Java and was “very attracted to her beauty and what she stood for.”
He set out to find and meet Java, and finally succeeded. In no time, Java became his “mother” and a good role model, a “woman of mixed color” who came from humble roots to take Hollywood by storm – the laws of racism and discrimination must be discarded.
He also became a dear friend, said Sahar. “He was the funniest person you’ll ever meet. He was smart, very smart, classy – but don’t tempt him because you will know how he felt,” said Sahar with a laugh.
Jayce Baron, one of the caretakers of Java in his last years, said that the queer people today “benefit as a society on the backs and shoulders of people of color, and they never give them their credit or their due.”
That should change, he said, because understanding that history will be important to continue fighting for the rights of the poor in the future.
“If Java was able to do the work it did in the 1960s, we can continue that work today,” he said. “His legacy is not over.”
In fact, Java’s legacy is even more important today, activists said, as LGBTQ+ rights are under attack — bolstered by President-elect Donald Trump’s victory in a campaign focused on anti-sexism.
Trevor Ladner, director of educational programs at the One Institute, an LGBTQ+ history and education organization in LA, said he teaches Java’s story as part of the center’s youth program, and learned of his death while researching his story with students over the weekend.
He said California law requires school-aged students to receive an education about the contributions of queer people and people of color, and “Java’s heated battle for his labor rights” in the 1960s fit the bill well.
“The importance of her story is underscored by the ongoing legal attacks on trans autonomy and drag entertainment,” Ladner said, “and the increasing visibility of student youth in schools.”
Sahar said that Java was “confused” by the increase in anti-sexist sentiments in recent years, because “he came from an era where they helped build the foundation” for changing the situation in acceptance and he never thought that the country would go back.
But he also felt excited about the biopic of his life, which Sahar is working on to get support alongside producer Anthony Hemingway.
“He felt that if people saw his life story and understood what it took to get here, so far, they would be able to better understand love and acceptance and equality,” Sahar said. It was something the two agreed on.
“Java told me, ‘Baby, I did my homework back in the day. I fought for our rights. You have to figure out what you’re going to do,’” Sahar said. “And I said, ‘Java, that’s why we’re making your film.
In an interview about the biopic before his death, Java said he felt his story “needed to be told” – especially today.
He said: “Many of my brothers and sisters were killed during my time, so I don’t care who doesn’t like it.” I will tell you.”
Times staff writer Grace Toohey contributed to this report.
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