The Hidden Queer Stories and Heroes of 9/11

Every year on September 11, Americans take time to remember the nearly 3,000 lives lost in the 2001 terrorist attacks. But after two decades, there are still those that have yet to be honored—heroes who were hidden away, all because they are queer. Finally, on the 20th Anniversary of 9/11, their stories are coming to light.

We here at OFM would like to join our fellow LGBTQ publications and community in sharing these untold stories. As our country mourns together, so, too, does our community for our fallen queer siblings who deserve to have their memories, legacies, and lives endure as much as anyone else’s. Rest in peace.

Father Mychal F. Judge

Many know the name, but fewer know his story. Mychal Judge, a Roman Catholic chaplain with the New York City fire department, is widely known as “victim number-one” of the September 11 attacks. One of the very first people on scene at the World Trade Center, Judge entered the lobby, removed his helmet, and knelt beside a mortally wounded firefighter to administer last rites. As he prayed, debris from the crumbling building struck the 68-year-old priest, killing him.

Judge had spent 40 years with the Church, working with marginalized communities, particularly those hit hardest by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He founded one of the first Catholic HIV ministries in 1989 that visited hospitalized patients and their families. In a time where priests were at best silent on the issue, Judge was a hands-on advocate for the LGBTQ community. But Judge was more than just an activist on behalf of the queer population—he was a part of it.

“Father Judge’s selflessness is a reminder of the sanctity that the church often overlooks in LGBTQ people,” said James Martin, a Jesuit priest. “Heaven is filled with LGBTQ people. All the church has to do is start to recognize this.”

As more and more people learn about Mychal Judge’s life and legacy, a movement has formed to declare him a saint. New Ways Ministry, a national Catholic ministry promoting the rights of LGBTQ people, is leading the charge to have Father Judge canonized by the Catholic Church.

Sal Sapienza is a Protestant minister in Michigan who met Judge in 1989 through his HIV work. “What is a saint? Part of it is they inspire us to want to rise higher along our spiritual path, to be the best versions of what God wanted us to be,” Sapienza reflected. “Mychal was the best example of that.”

Mark Bingham

Mark Bingham was a passenger aboard United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked, and everyone who knew him best says Mark would not have hesitated for a second if he saw lives were in danger.

“There is no doubt in my mind that Mark is a hero and did everything in his power to keep the plane from hurting innocent people,” says San Francisco resident Paul Holm, 40. Holm believes that Bingham, his former partner, was one of the flight’s passengers responsible for foiling the hijackers’ plans to ram the plane into another national landmark. He recalls multiple occasions when his boyfriend fought off would-be-muggers, even one brandishing a gun.

“Mark saved my life at least once, probably twice, in the past,” Holm says, “and I know he saved countless others” by his heroics on Flight 93. Although the brave actions of Bingham and others kept the terrorists from their intended target, the aircraft crashed outside Pittsburgh.

Holm describes his former boyfriend as a handsome, confident man with a love for the competitive, playing many sports including on a gay rugby team. His family, friends, and coworkers all agree: Bingham was fearless.

The Brandhorst-Gamboa family

“Dan and Ron were two opposites who complemented each other in many ways,” J.B. Campise recalls of his dear friends.

Ronald Gamboa and Dan Brandhorst may have looked like an unlikely pair—Gamboa was a small man born in the Philippines who moved to America when he was only 6 weeks old. Brandhorst looked like your classic American business man, towering over Gamboa at a whopping six-foot-two. “Dan was the more serious, methodical, and restrained one,” Campise says. “Ron was the whimsical, flamboyant one.”

Despite their physical differences, the two men were undoubtedly made for each other. They had been together for 14 years when their United Airlines Flight 175 hit the World Trade Center, killing both them and their 3-year-old adopted son, David. The family had been returning from an annual trip to Provincetown.

“They were such devoted fathers,” remembers friend Danny Levy, who is now in the process of adopting his own first child. He credits Gamboa and Brandhorst for showing him how to be out-and-proud gay fathers. “Seeing them with David was such a big influence on helping me make this decision,” he says. “They didn’t slink away to suburbia or shelter their child from the gay world. They showed me I could raise my child in my own community.”

Carol Flyzik

Carol Flyzik was on her flight home after spending a relaxing mini vacation with her partner of nearly 13 years, Nancy Walsh. “We had a lovely weekend,” Walsh remembers. “We went to the beach, and we had a wonderful lobster dinner on the porch.”

Flyzik gave Walsh a last hug and a kiss, promising to let her know when she reached L.A., but her plane never arrived at its intended destination. Flyzik was a passenger on American Airlines Flight 11, the first of two planes that collided with the World Trade Center.

The two women met on the job as nurses working in the same emergency room, but what started as an easy friendship quickly became something much deeper. Their attraction was undeniable. Flyzik moved in with Walsh and her children, who Walsh says cared for Flyzik as if she was their own parent. When the kids got older and moved out, Flyzik and Walsh began their passion project—restoring and renovating a Victorian home in New Hampshire where they hoped to live out their days together.

Flyzik was a vocal advocate for equal, queer rights, working closely with the Human Rights Campaign and often planning vacations for her and Walsh around gay rights celebrations throughout the country.

Walsh is so glad that more publications are starting to share the stories of Flyzik and the other queer Americans killed in the attacks. “She was just a wonderful human being who wanted people to accept her for who she was,” Walsh says, “[This] would have been very important to her.”

Pamela Boyce

Forty-three-year-old Pamela Boyce worked as vice president of a World Trade Center firm. She was driven, direct, a savvy business woman, but also a wonderful, loving aunt and quite the disco dancer. She was working on the 92nd floor when her building was hit by American Airlines Flight 11.

Boyce always wanted to make the most of life. Despite her busy career, she had recently earned an associate degree, graduating with stellar marks and plans to continue her education with bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

But even with her ambitious career goals, she always made time for family. She loved her two nieces and nephew and made sure to be a part of their lives. She liked taking time off in the summers to get away to the beach and enjoy the sun with her partner of six-and-a-half years, Catherine Anello.

Anello said that while Boyce delighted in life, she was never afraid of death. Whenever the two brought up the dark subject, Boyce had always said, “Don’t mourn my death; celebrate my life,” Anello told the Los Angeles Times. “I’m not afraid to die,” she had said, “because where I’m going is beautiful.”

For more stories about the queer Americans and heroes of 9/11, see advocate.com for their amazing coverage.