R.I.P. Kevin Pravia.

I was hoping to return to this blog with a triumphantly witty rant about something or other but now I'll have to briefly postpone that in light of a very serious tragedy that has taken place this past weekend which I feel I must address in some form.



Kevin Pravia was found dead in his Chelsea apartment on Sunday. While details are somewhat hazy as I write this, it sounds like his roommate came home to find him on his bed with plastic stuffed in his mouth and an electrical cord wrapped around his neck. An autopsy has not yet been conducted and police have said they haven't ruled out homicide or suicide.

I didn't know Kevin very well. As a matter of fact, I hardly knew him at all. He and I talked online off and on for nearly a year but never got around to meeting until just last week. It was a Friday night and I had invited a bunch of people over to my new apartment for some drinks before we headed out to party. Kevin came, along with a friend of his. He was rather shy and quiet, but very nice. Those of you reading this that were in attendance may remember the young, shaggy-haired boy with clear blue eyes and bright smile. Kevin left early because he was hesitant to try out his new ID at the swanky and intimidating Chelsea bars.

He was 19 years old. Nineteen. He was happy to be back in the big city after spending the summer at home in Massachusetts. He was just as happy to be living in Chelsea, the center of all things gay; eager to go out and have fun with his friends and meet some cute guys. He was a good kid.

Now this poor boy, five years younger than I, is dead.

It seems very unlikely to me that this was a suicide or an accidental death and so the only option that remains is murder. I'm not going to speculate here about how Kevin got into a situation where this could happen to him, but I will say this: be careful out there. We in the gay community are often so wrapped up in our own trite fabulousness that we forget that this is not a safe world that we live in. Tragically, Kevin is now a testament to the fact that something senseless and terrible can happen to a genuinely good person. As a community, we should not stand for this. We can only hope that whoever is responsible for this is brought to "justice." The thought that this happened in the heart of a "gay neighborhood" only a few blocks from where I now live is especially chilling for me.

I've known people that have died, but I've never been remotely familiar with anyone that has been murdered before, which is part of the reason why I think I'm so affected by this. Thoughts of "if I had only known" are running through my head and I find it strange to think that I was speaking with him as recently as Friday. I barely knew Kevin and I wish I could have protected him from this. I can't even begin to imagine how those who knew him best must feel right now.

I'm not a religious person, as many of you can probably guess. The philosophies that I hold dear dismiss any notion of a utopian afterlife, so I find it difficult to have faith in the idea of heaven. For me this makes the death of someone so young all that much more tragic. Still, I have no more proof of my ideas than any religion does of theirs, so I may very well be wrong. Today I find myself hoping that that's the case. I hope I'm wrong and that there is a heaven and that Kevin is now there. He was a good person and good people deserve better than this world.

Rest in peace Kevin.