Brody's Notes... New York City Gay Youth Activist & HIV Peer Counselor Joseph Jefferson Commits Suicide

Joseph Jefferson   Family Photo

By Brody Levesque (Washington DC) OCT 26 | New York City based television field producer, freelance journalist and political columnist, Rod McCullom, has reported that a twenty-six-year-old young Gay Youth Activist and HIV-Aids peer counselor, Joseph Jefferson of Brooklyn, New York reportedly committed suicide on Saturday by hanging.

McCullom wrote in an article his popular website Rod 2.0:

By most accounts, Jefferson was a true LGBT youth pioneer. The 2002 graduate of New York City's Harvey Milk High School later worked on HIV prevention and outreach for Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) and the now-shuttered People of Color in Crisis (POCC), New York City's leading HIV/AIDS groups for Black gay men. More recently, Joseph Jefferson was an assistant to Laurence Pinckney and James Saunders, New York City's popular Black LGBT event promoters, reports Nathan James. Jefferson was also active in New York City's colorful ballroom community.

Nathan James, author and social activist, writing about Jefferson on his Facebook page said;

"As an advocate for LGBT youth, Mr. Jefferson surely made a positive impact on those he met and counseled."

Jefferson's suicide comes less than a week after another young African-American youth, Jamarcus "Marcus" Bell, 14, took his life in Fisher, Indiana. Officials in that case still aren't releasing many details that could link that tragedy to bullying.