A Norman man who sued to get "IM GAY” on his car tag has died.

Keith Kimmel, 28, was found dead Wednesday morning at a friend’s apartment in Norman, police reported. Police detectives were investigating.

The gay activist’s lawsuit gained him national attention in February. He dropped the Oklahoma County lawsuit two weeks after filing it. He said he was changing attorneys and intended to file it again in federal court.

"I want to tell people who I am and what I am. I’m proud of it. I’m openly gay. I’m not hiding,” he said in February.

His friend, Kerri Logsdon, told The Oklahoman she found Kimmel’s body in a chair in front of her computer in the apartment’s living room around 7:45 a.m. Wednesday. In a posting Monday on his Internet blog, Kimmel wrote, "I am done trying to love a world that has no love for me. I am done trying to believe redeeming things about people who have nothing redeeming about them.”

An autopsy will be done to determine the cause and manner of death, a spokeswoman for the medical examiner’s office said.

His death came days after a run-in with Tulsa police officers outside a gay club.

Kimmel told The Oklahoman Monday he was the victim of gay bashing. He said he mailed a police brutality complaint to Tulsa police internal affairs officers. In the complaint, he wrote officers abused him physically and verbally outside The End Up club then dumped him at a hospital emergency room for treatment.

He complained officers at one point hit his head on a patrol car’s door frame several times as they tried to stuff him into the car. He wrote he was drinking at the club Friday night and police were called after he was involved in a fight.

Kimmel applied a year ago to the Oklahoma Tax Commission for the "IM GAY” car tag. He was turned down because of an internal Tax Commission rule against special license tags that "may be offensive to the general public.”

He sued the state Feb. 10, asking an Oklahoma County judge to order tax officials to grant his request. He argued his free speech rights had been violated. He dismissed the lawsuit Feb. 26.

Kimmel in February said he was a student at Oklahoma City Community College but his friend said he dropped out. Logsdon said she was letting him stay with her a few days so he didn’t have to sleep in his car.

"He was loud and gregarious, but he had a soft heart. Deep inside, he was a good guy,” said Logsdon, 40.

On his blog, Kimmel wrote at length Monday about his anger over a breakup with a new boyfriend, a dancer at the Tulsa gay bar. He wrote he was writing about it as a purging process. "It relieves pain. Some people cut themselves, others take drugs, I write and — and sometimes take drugs, too.”