Living Out Loud with Darian

Sad news to report as another promising life has ended prematurely. Joseph Jefferson of Brooklyn, New York expired on Saturday by taking his own life. The tragic news broke via Facebook over the weekend and very few details are known at this time as the mainstream media has yet to pick up the story.


New York City activist Nathan James tells loldarian.com that Jefferson was a 2002 graduate of The Harvey Milk School and took an active role in People of Color in Crisis (POCC) as well as Gay Men of African Descent (GMAD) organizations. He was also an assistant to LGBT event promoters Laurence Pinckney and James Saunders.


His last Facebook status message read: "I could not bear the burden of living as a gay man of color in a world grown cold and hateful towards those of us who live and love differently than the so-called "social mainstream". "


Joseph Jefferson becomes an unwanted addition to the growing list of gay and lesbian youth who have taken their lives in recent weeks, nineteen year old Corey Jackson of Oakland University was found last Tuesday night hanging from a tree in a wooded area near his campus in Rochester Hills, Michigan. Raymond Chase, another nineteen year-old Black gay teen also died by hanging himself in his dorm room at Johnson & Wales University.


"As an advocate for LGBT youth, Mr. Jefferson surely made a positive impact on those he met and counseled. But this same nurturing and enrichment he offered to others, was absent in his own life to such a degree, that he felt the only way to deal with the pain of his existence was to end it," writes Nathan James via Facebook.


"What, then, will we do, collectively and individually? That next young man who is feeling overwhelmed, is already on his way to the top of that bridge. he's already fashioning that noose. He's already cleaning his gun. We cannot afford any more delay. We are the help, the only help possible in some cases, and it's already late."


Loldarian.com will keep you updated on this tragic story as more details become available. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the family and friends of Joseph Jefferson.