Justin Sylvester is exploring the pop culture moments that shaped him with his latest venture, the podcast “Yestergays.”
Teaming up with internet personality Blakely Thornton, the TODAY with Jenna & Friends contributor leans into nostalgia while exploring viral moments in celebrity history between 2000 and 2015, such as the infamous “Lady Marmalade” feud or the legacy of the reality show “Jon & Kate Plus 8.”
“Those moments in pop culture — those Britney (Spears), those Lindsay (Lohan), those Paris (Hilton) moments — shaped who I was as a gay man,” Sylvester, 38, tells TODAY.com. “When I found Blakely Thornton, we decided to do this podcast so we can give those pop culture moments some love.”
The podcast launched May 27, just before the start of Pride Month. In a social media video introducing the venture, Sylvester describes the show’s focus as zeroing in on the moments that “excited the queers of yesteryears.”
In Sylvester’s own life, there’s one headline-making moment that carries special significance.
“For myself, Lance Bass coming out was such a pivotal moment in 2006,” he tells TODAY.com. “It was kind of, sort of, when coming out started becoming something that you could emotionally survive.
“Before Lance Bass came out, people were outed, and Lance Bass kind of ushered in not only being yourself, but being able to survive it and reinvent and keep going and keep it moving,” he adds. “Now being friends with Lance Bass, I can say it wasn’t easy for him, but it made it easier for all of us.”
Bass, a former member of the boy band ‘N Sync, came out in an interview for a People cover story. The front of the magazine featured a photo of Bass with the all-caps headline “I’m Gay,” accompanied by a quote, “I’m more liberated and happy than I’ve ever been.”
In the full interview, he shared that he decided to come out because rumors about his sexuality “were starting to affect my daily life.” (Bass later told Attitude magazine that he chose to come out after celebrity gossip bloggers like Perez Hilton “bullied” him with intense coverage at the time. Hilton apologized for some of his content in a 2010 video and said while he didn’t see himself as a bully, he would be doing things differently.)
“Now it feels like it’s on my terms. I’m at peace with my family, my friends, myself and God so there’s really nothing else that I worry about,” Bass told People at the time.
Sylvester says he remembers feeling “taken aback” reading about Bass coming forward with his sexuality.
“It was somebody that we grew up with, someone that we idolize and someone that in my mind, I thought could make a big difference, and it scared the hell out of me as well at the same time, because I had a secret that I was hiding,” he says.
“But I remember it giving me hope that if he could do it on such a public stage, then I can do it as well,” he adds.
Now, the entertainment journalist and “E! News” host says anytime he sees Bass, “I will give him his flowers.”
“I think deep down inside, he did it for all of us,” Sylvester says. “He didn’t even know it at the time. He had no idea what the impact it was going to have, but I do remind him.”
Other moments that live “rent-free” in Sylvester’s mind include Kanye West interrupting Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards and the rise of RuPaul.
“As a little boy in 1996, watching VH1 during the summer and seeing ‘The RuPaul Show’ with an out, gay man at the helm — pivotal in my life. It gave me something to look forward to,” he says.
It’s part of why he knew he wanted to be an entertainment journalist. Calling fame and celebrity “scary,” he says he recognized that he wanted to “be close enough to the fire without getting burned.”
“I think every model wanted to be Cindy (Crawford), they wanted to be Naomi (Campbell). … That’s what models wanted to do. If you’re an actor, you wanted to be Tom Cruise, you wanted to be Brad Pitt,” he says. “For people like me who are TV hosts, I used to watch Ryan Seacrest, Catt Sadler and Giuliana DePandi, and that’s all I ever wanted to do.”
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