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Two
Gay Men Who Made Themselves Heroes
Their stories have eerie similarities: Two men in their 30s.
Both were from San Francisco. Both were athletes. One saved the
life of the President, one saved untold lives during a terrorist
attack. Both were gay. This is the story of Mark Bingham
(left) and Oliver Sipple. Column. |
Sept. 11 2001 is a date that
will now live in infamy. On that day, the United States
was attacked on American soil for the first time since the War
of 1812. More people died on American soil that day than
had since the Civil War. The dead also included
hundreds of people from dozens of countries.
Out of the ashes of the World
Trade Center and the Pentagon, and the wreckage of United Flight
93 in Pennsylvania, came the stories of the men and women who
died in this attack.
Even here, in the gay sports
corner of the world, we lost friends very dear to us. Here
is our attempt to share with you some of those stories of the
people we lost, and the perspectives we gained.
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| The
coverage of the NYC Firemen chaplain, Fr. Mychal Judge OFM
(Franciscan), who died while giving last rites, also flooded me
with teenage memories. He was our pastor back in the '60s
at St. Joseph's RC in East Rutherford, NJ. I distinctly remember
that he was a strikingly good-looking man under all those brown
robes, a wiry, physical, Mel Gibson type.
Story |
"Roxy Eddie" (Philip)
Ognibene loved life and especially loved softball. He was
a bond trader who was on the 89th floor of the World Trade
Center when it was attacked Sept. 11; he is missing and
presumed dead. A teammate on the Renegades remembers what
made "Roxy Eddie" special .