FDNY Chaplain Mychal Judge, Flight 93 Passenger Mark Bingham Made Ultimate Sacrifice 15 Years Ago Today

On the 15th anniversary of the terror attack of Sept. 11, 2001, the nation pauses again to remember all who lost their lives in the assaults on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and in the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Among the most celebrated heroes of 9/11 are two gay men, Father Mychal Judge and Mark Bingham.

Judge (pictured), a Franciscan friar and a Roman Catholic priest who served as chaplain to the Fire Department of New York City, rushed with some off-duty firefighters to the North Tower of the World Trade Center, which had just been hit by the first hijacked plane, American Flight 11.

Soon after, Judge became the first recorded fatality of the attack. (He was not the first person to die in the attack — that distinction probably belongs to flight attendants on American Flight 11 — but his was the first officially recorded death.) He was struck by falling debris in the tower while administering the last rites to another victim.

Judge, a gay man who ministered to AIDS sufferers and served as chaplain to Dignity, an organization of gay Roman Catholics, exemplified a Catholic ideal of service. As biographer Michael Ford has noted, Judge’s “ministry … helped many gay people, alienated from the church, reconnect with their faith. Father Mychal was a living symbol of the church as it ought to be.”

Even before his death, many considered Judge a saint because of his compassion and service to others, especially his embrace of the homeless and those suffering from AIDS, as well as the deep spirituality he exhibited.

His former teacher and spiritual advisor, John J. McNeill, a Jesuit who pioneered the development of “queer theology” before being expelled from the order, told Judge’s biographer that he achieved an “extraordinary degree of union with the divine. We knew we were dealing with someone directly in line with God.”

Judge is the subject of a documentary film, Saint of 9/11 (2006, directed by Glenn Holsten). Narrated by Sir Ian McKellen, it is a touching portrait of Father Judge, capturing the man not only in his enormous sense of duty and service to others but also in his gifts as a witty storyteller with an irrepressible sense of humor and an abiding belief in hope.

In June 2002, Congress passed the Mychal Judge Act, which was signed into law by President George W. Bush over the objections of Attorney General John Ashcroft. The legislation authorized the payment of federal death benefits to anyone named as a beneficiary on the insurance policy of a firefighter or police officer who died in the line of duty. Previously, only spouses, parents, and children had been eligible. The passage of the Mychal Judge Act meant that, for the first time, gay and lesbian partners could receive a federal benefit.

Mark Bingham, an openly gay businessman who owned a public relations firm and was an avid rugby player, was the last passenger to board United Flight 93 in Newark, New Jersey. Soon after the doomed flight began its journey to San Francisco, it was hijacked by terrorists who redirected toward Washington, D. C., where they apparently planned to crash it into either the Capitol or White House.

Flight 93 passengers learned from cell phone conversations that the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had already been attacked. Bingham and three other athletic young men sitting in the rear of the plane — Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick — are believed to have stormed the cockpit and forced the plane to crash into an empty field in Somerset County, Pennsylvania.

Although all passengers on the plane were killed, the actions of Bingham, Beamer, Burnett and Glick undoubtedly saved the lives of many more.

The heroism of the brave passengers of Flight 93 has been celebrated in a number of films and television reenactments, including Paul Greenglass’s feature film United 93 (2006) and Peter Markle’s TV film Flight 93 (2006), as well as a memorial at the crash site.

Bingham has been memorialized in a number of ways, including the establishment of the Mark Bingham Leadership Fund at the University of California at Berkeley and the naming of a San Francisco gym in his honor. Along with the other passengers on Flight 93, Bingham was also posthumously presented the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2002.

Most fittingly, given his passion for rugby — as an undergraduate at Berkeley, he played on two national championship teams, and later for the San Francisco Fog, a predominantly gay team — the International Gay Rugby Association has named its biennial tournament the Bingham Cup.

Bingham’s heroism on 9/11 came as no surprise to his former partner, Paul Holm, who told Jon Barrett in The Advocate‘s Sept. 11, 2002 feature on Bingham as “Person of the Year,“ that, in addition to the physical courage he showed on the rugby field, Bingham had also foiled mugging and robbery attempts, including one at gunpoint. Many others also attested to the 6-foot, 5-inch, 220-pound Bingham’s protectiveness and love of action. (Barrett’s feature story was expanded into a book entitled Hero of Flight 93: Mark Bingham. A Man Who Fought Back on September 11 [2002]).

Bingham’s mother, Alice Hoagland, a former United Airlines flight attendant, has been an unfailing supporter of LGBT rights and a fierce protector of her beloved son’s memory.

Melissa Etheridge’s “Tuesday Morning” is a tribute to Bingham that specifically contrasts his heroism with the denial of equal rights that he experienced as a gay man.

Bingham is the subject of a documentary by Scott Gracheff, The Rugby Player (2013). Below is a trailer for the film, which was formerly titled With You.

Among other LGBT victims of the terrorist attack are the following: Carol Flyzik, passenger on Flight 11; David Charlebois, co-pilot of American Airlines Flight 77, which crashed into the Pentagon; Graham Berkeley, passenger on United Flight 175, the second hijacked plane that crashed into the World Trade Center; Ronald Gamboa and Dan Broadhorst, a gay couple who were traveling with their adopted son, David, on Flight 175; James Joe Ferguson, a passenger on Flight 77; Jeffrey Collman, a flight attendant on Flight 11; and Waleska Martinez, a passenger on Flight 93.

The following LGBT victims of 9/11 worked at or near the World Trade Center: Pamela J. Boyce, John Keohane, Eddie Ognibene, Eugene Clark, Wesley Mercer, Luke A. Dudek, Michael Lepore, William Anthony Karnes, Seamus O’Neal, Catherine Smith, Patricia McAneny and Renee Barrett.

Sheila Hein worked at the Pentagon. When Virginia’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Fund administrators refused to recognize Hein’s partner Peggy Neff as anything more than a “friend,” she sued. In January 2003, the federal government’s 9-11 Compensation Fund recognized Neff as Hein’s partner and approved compensation for her.

It is believed that several of the firefighters, police officers and rescue personnel who perished on 9/11 were also members of the LGBT community, but have not been identified as such. More information about the LGBT heroes and victims may be found here.Â