Jeffrey Escoffier was born on October 9, 1942, in Baltimore, Maryland. He earned a bachelor's degree from St. John's College; a master's degree in African studies and international affairs from Columbia University; and a doctorate in economic history from the University of Pennsylvania. He began attending Philadelphia Gay Activists Alliance meetings in 1971 and eventually became president of the group, helping to plan the first gay pride march in Philadelphia in 1972. He also co-founded The Gay Alternative, a Philadelphia-based political and cultural magazine, in 1972 and participated in leftist organizing against the U.S. Bicentennial in 1976.

Escoffier moved to San Francisco in 1977, where he later co-founded the San Francisco Gay and Lesbian History Project in 1985 and Out/Look: A National Lesbian and Gay Quarterly in 1988, served on the editorial board and then as executive editor of The Socialist Review (1978-1988), and organized the OutWrite conferences of gay and lesbian writers. He also worked as a literary agent for gay and lesbian writers in the Bay Area.

In 1995, Escoffier moved to New York City, where he worked as the deputy director of the Office of Gay and Lesbian Health for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (1995-2000) and then as the director of Health Media and Marketing (2000-2015). He also served on the board of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies (CLAGS) at the City University of New York (1992-1995, 2010-2013). He is the author of several books, including American Homo: Community and Perversity (1998), Sexual Revolution (2003), Bigger Than Life: The History of Gay Porn Cinema from Beefcake to Hardcore (2009), and Sex, Society, and the Making of Pornography: The Pornographic Object of Knowledge (2021).

Escoffier retired in 2015 and died on May 20, 2022. He discusses his years in Philadelphia and his work on The Gay Alternative in his interview with the Philadelphia LGBT History Project, 1940-1980, by Marc Stein.