[2] He was diagnosed with HIV during 1990[3] at the age of 19 and opted not to take antiretroviral medications due to their possible side effects ranging from fatigue and nausea to blurred vision.
[1] Commentator Keith Boykin reflected that Whitfield "was unusually committed to exposing the truth about AIDS in the Black community and he was unafraid to challenge conventional wisdom".
[10] Whitfield was openly bi-sexual[11] and - as Verena Dobnik of the Associated Press wrote - he "used his personal experience - including relationships with both men and women - as a prism on the larger issues surrounding HIV/AIDS,".
[13] Vibe magazine's Angelo Ragaza (also editor of Poz magazine) gave Whitfield a feature-article writing assignment which had Whitfield traveling to South Dakota State Penitentiary and interviewing Nikko Briteramos, a Black, 18-year-old, Si Tanka University (Huron, SD) freshman who was the first person convicted (2002) and imprisoned under South Dakota's HIV transmission law mandating that HIV-positive persons inform prospective sexual partners of their HIV-positive status.
[8] Whitfield, having chosen to refuse antiretroviral therapy, struggled both physically and emotionally as his T-cell-count dropped, his HIV viral load climbed, and his health deteriorated.
[8] In HIV Plus August 2005, Whitfield wrote: "I keep weighing potential side effects against the ill alternative - opportunistic infections - and I just can't decide which is worse.
"[8] Responding to the criticism, Whitfield wrote in what was to become his final HIV Plus (November 2005) column - "A Prayer for the Dying" - that he had grown tired of people "telling me - but never asking - what I need.
"[8] Whitfield died, age 36, of "AIDS-related complications" - kidney failure and pneumonia - in New York City at North General Hospital located in Harlem.
"[5] October 15, nearly a week after his death, Whitfield (posthumously) and his co-writer Kai Wright received a First Place "2005 Salute To Excellence Award" from the National Association of Black Journalists for their "AIDS Goes Gray" story in City Limits magazine.
[18] Whifield's final resting place is Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Illinois which contains gravesites of many Black celebrities - including Chicago Blues musicians, athletes and other such notables.