Journalist and Writer. He was born in Chicago and died in Harlem. He used a magazine column to chronicle the everyday struggles of people with H.I.V. He moved to New York in 2000, where he became one of the nation’s leading journalists reporting on AIDS among African-Americans. He had written a column titled “Native Tongue” since May 2004 in HIV Plus, a national magazine distributed at doctors’ offices and organizations offering services for people with AIDS. The magazine’s editor, Michael W. E. Edwards, said that Mr. Whitfield’s column was one of the magazine’s most popular features because of the candor with which he shared his own fight against H.I.V. He learned that he was H.I.V.-positive when he was 19, and he decided not to take H.I.V. meds. It was a choice that he stood by till the end, even though his doctors advised him to take the medicines. He was also a frequent contributor to Vibe magazine and a former senior editor at Poz, another magazine intended for people with H.I.V. Cause of death: AIDS-related complications. (bio by: José L Bernabé Tronchoni)