Born in Abington, Pa., he began his career as a night copy boy in January 1973, while a student at Columbia University, where he studied economics. Jeffrey was regional editor and a metropolitan news reporter before being named chief of The Times's bureau in Albany in 1986, where he covered the early years of the Cuomo administration.

He joined the national staff in 1988, working as bureau chief in Miami before returning to New York two years later as deputy national editor. Jeffrey was deputy national editor in December 1990 when he suffered a brain seizure at his desk that led to the discovery he had AIDS.

Part of the price of his ascent at The Times, Jeffrey long believed, was that he hide his homosexuality from at least some of his superiors. But after his illness became known, and with his sexual orientation no longer a secret, he became an eloquent spokesman for the frustrations of people with AIDS and an outspoken supporter of equal rights for gay people. In public speeches, he frequently apologized for coming late to the cause.

When his illness was discovered in 1990, Jeffrey, who spent his entire two-decade career as a reporter and editor at The New York Times, covering the White House, saw his situation not only as a patient but as a journalist.

Returning to work after a year of battling AIDS-related illnesses, he persuaded his editors to allow him to cover AIDS and gay issues. His writing gained him national attention as he brought readers into the world of gay politics and of people with AIDS in a blunt and sometimes startling way.

Jeffrey died of complications of the disease at his home in Manhattan. He was 39.