Personal losses
As details of attacks surface, so do
stories of gay victims
http://www.washingtonblade.com/national/010921c.htm
Following are brief profiles of several known gay victims in the terrorist attacks on the United States last week. The list is not exhaustive; the Blade expects to continue hearing stories of gay men, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered lives that were lost on Tuesday, Sept. 11, in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
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| Graham Berkeley (by BBC photo) |
‘Brilliant boy, brilliant man’
Graham Berkeley, 37, a native of England who lived in Boston, boarded United Airlines Flight 175 on Sept. 11 on his way to a conference in Los Angeles. He died when the plane became the second hijacked airliner to crash into the World Trade Center.
Berkeley’s parents, Charles and Pauline Berkeley, still live in England and watched the crash on television, although it took eight hours to confirm that their son had been on the plane.
"We had seen the fireball ourselves and knew to expect the worst," Charles Berkeley told the [London] Mirror. "We watched our child die. He was a brilliant boy, a brilliant man."
Graham Berkeley worked for Compuware as product management director and was a professional violinist in Germany and England, the Advocate reported.
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| Mark Bingham |
Rugby player called a hero
Gay rugby enthusiast Mark Bingham has been hailed as one of a small group of heroes who fought back against hijackers on United Flight 93, which crashed in Pennsylvania. The flight was believed to have been headed to Washington, D.C., likely to attack another national symbol.
Bingham, 31, was a member of the San Francisco Fog, a gay rugby team and planned to organize a rugby team for next year’s Gay Games in Sydney, Australia. Outsports called Bingham "a warm, friendly, smart, handsome man who welcomed people into his life. … He was a member of our community."
Bingham’s mother, Alice Hoglan, became one of the early faces to speak in the wake of the tragedy when she appeared on news shows, tearfully recounting the telephone conversation she had with her son shortly before he died.
Kevin Waizenhoffer, head coach of the Fog, joined in a tribute page hosted by the team. He said, in part: "Mark enjoyed life so much. He had a blast, while at the same time being very responsible."
That tribute page also includes an e-mail from Bingham after he had learned that the Fog had been accepted as a permanent member of the California Rugby Football Union. Bingham recounted his struggle to reconcile being gay and being a rugby player. "Gay men weren’t always wallflowers waiting on the sideline," he said, applauding his team’s acceptance into the league. "We have the opportunity to let these other athletes know that gay men were around all along — on their little league teams, in their classes, being their friends."
The gay rugby team in Washington, D.C., the Renegades, are having a private service at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at St. Matthew’s Cathedral, on Rhode Island Avenue between 17th Street and Connecticut Avenue, NW.
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| Pamela Boyce |
Accounting exec ‘not afraid to die’
Pamela J. Boyce, 43, is one of only several dozen World Trade Center workers who have officially been confirmed dead, while thousands more remain missing.
Boyce, a resident of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, worked on the 92nd floor of One World Trade Center as assistant vice president of accounting for the New York office of Carr Futures.
Catherine Anello, Boyce’s partner, told the New York Times that Boyce was a no-nonsense person who wouldn’t want her loved ones to be overcome by grief.
"If there was someone who lost a loved one and had been grieving too long, so that they were not living their life, she would say, ‘Stop. It’s not what they would want. They are in a better place,’" Anello said. "She said, ‘I'm not afraid to die because I know where I am going is beautiful.’"
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| David Brandhorst, 3, with one of his fathers, Ronald
Gamboa (AP photo) |
Adopted son dies with fathers
Los Angeles gay couple Daniel Brandhorst and Ronald Gamboa were onboard United Airlines Flight 175 when it crashed into the World Trade Center. David Brandhorst, the couple’s 3-year-old adopted son, was with them when the plane went down shortly after terrorists hijacked following its departure from Boston. It was headed for Los Angeles.
Andrew Isen, a close friend of the couple, said Brandhorst and Gamboa had been together 10 years and adopted their child at the time of his birth.
"[David] knew his parents as ‘Daddy’ and ‘Poppy,’" Isen said. "He was the loving focus of their lives." Isen, who said he meet Brandhorst and Gamboa nine years ago during a Colorado ski trip, said he is devastated over the tragic events that ended their lives.
"They were a wonderful, functioning, church-going family," Isen said.
Daniel Brandhorst, 42, was a lawyer with PricewaterhouseCoopers, according to MSNBC. Gamboa, 33, was a store manager at The Gap.
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| David Charlebois |
Pilot advocated for gays in industry
David Charlebois, 39, first officer on American Airlines Flight 77, which collided into the Pentagon after being hijacked by terrorists, died while flying one of his standard routes.
Charlebois lived near Washington, D.C.’s popular Dupont Circle neighborhood with his partner of 14 years, Tom Hay, and their border collie, Chance. He graduated from Yorktown High School in Arlington, Va., and then enrolled in Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Fla., where he learned to fly a variety of private and commercial planes, including commercial airliners. He began his career as a pilot for corporate executives and later worked as a pilot for U.S. Airways. He joined American Airlines 10 years ago, where he served as first officer, or co-pilot, flying mostly transcontinental routes out of Dulles International Airport.
Hay said Charlebois’ loyalty to his friends, family, and community was rivaled only by his love for flying.
"He always wanted to be a pilot," Hay said.
Charlebois was an active member of the National Gay Pilots Association and had worked quietly within his company as an advocate for rights of gay employees, including gay pilots. Last year, he marched in the Millennium March on Washington for Equality, a gay civil rights event, while wearing his pilot uniform. When American Airlines began offering domestic partner benefits for employees, Charlebois quickly arranged for Hay to enroll in the company’s health insurance plan as Charlesbois’ domestic partner.
In Washington, at least 1,000 people packed St. Matthew’s Cathedral on Tuesday, Sept. 18, for a memorial Mass for gay co-pilot Charlebois. Dozens of pilots, flight attendants, and officials from American Airlines and other airline companies attended the St. Matthews service. D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams and Tom Hays, Charlebois’s partner of 14 years, delivered eulogies.
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| Jeffrey Colman (AP photo) |
Upcoming vacation put attendant on fatal flight
Jeffrey Collman, 41, a flight attendant on American Airlines Flight 11, died when the hijacked jet slammed into the North World Trade Center tower in the first attack of Sept. 11.
A three-year employee of American Airlines, Collman had changed to the Boston-Los Angeles route from his normal Boston-San Francisco flights in order to prepare for an upcoming vacation, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Keith Bradkowski, Collman’s partner, had last heard from him the evening prior to the crash, when Collman called to talk about their upcoming trip.
Collman received the American Professional Flight Attendant Award in 1999, the Mercury News reported. In addition to Bradkowski, the Illinois native is survived by one sister and four brothers.
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| Joe Ferguson |
Geography educator inspired students
James Joe Ferguson, director of geography education outreach for the National Geographic Society, was on American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. Ferguson was traveling on a National Geographic-sponsored educational field trip to the Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary off Santa Barbara, Calif.
Ferguson, 39, was accompanying a colleague, three teachers, and three sixth-grade students, all from Washington, on the trip.
Ferguson lived on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., for 10 years with Winston, his wire-haired fox terrier. He was born July 25, 1962, in Durant, Miss., and joined National Geographic as an intern in 1987. He later accepted a permanent job and worked there for 14 years. Ferguson was one of the principal architects who designed the infrastructure of geography education, which resulted in the improvement of geography education throughout the United States, according to National Geographic.
"Through his passion and dedication, Mr. Ferguson had become a creative leader of the Society team charged with the enhancing the teaching and learning of geography in American classrooms. The thousands of teachers and students he worked with loved him for it," a National Geography statement read.
"Ultimately, what he did touched over 150,000 students and teachers — and that is just one person," said Ed Kaczmarek, a friend of Ferguson’s for 14 years, adding that Ferguson loved working with students. "He loved geography. He worked magic here. He symbolized the ideal of the [National] Geographic and his legacy will live on. We just all loved him so much. He was so full of life."
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| Mychal Judge (AP photo) |
Priest cared for dying firefighters
New York City Fire Department Chaplain Mychal Judge was killed during the collapse of the World Trade Center towers while administering last rites to a dying firefighter. Fellow firefighters carried his body to St. Peter’s Church and then back to the firehouse, the New York Times reported.
Judge, 68, had been a Catholic chaplain for the New York City Fire Department since 1992. "Father Mike," as Judge was known, was laid to rest last Saturday in a memorial service attended by more than 3,000 and presided over by Cardinal Edward M. Egan.
A Brooklyn native, Judge was remembered as "a decent, wonderful human being," by New York gay journalist Andy Humm. "I saw him at many demonstrations for gay and AIDS causes, showing up in his Franciscan monk’s cassock. And he was equally beloved by the Fire Department, there at every major fire tragedy in the city lending moral support to firefighters," Humm said.
Judge was also a "longtime member" of Dignity/USA, according to the Web site of the organization for "gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered Catholics, our families and friends."
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| Sheila Hein (AP photo) |
Pentagon analyst gave ‘a whole lot of love’
Sheila Hein, an analyst, was working for the U.S. Army’s management and budget office in the Pentagon when American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into it last Tuesday. Hein, 51, is still missing.
Hein lived with her partner of 17 years, Peggy Neff, in University Park, Md. They bought a house there seven years ago as a "fixer-upper" and turned the back yard into their "own private park," Neff told the Washington Post. "She is what this yard is. There’s a whole lot of love here," Neff said.
Hein worked at the Pentagon for the last five years as a visual information specialist for the Army and had only recently changed jobs. She was at the Pentagon Tuesday taking part in an Army internship, studying manpower analysis. A native of Springfield, Mass., she joined the Navy after high school and was sent to Virginia. She spent 10 years in the service as a photographer, married twice, and ventured into a career in computer graphics, working on government contracts.
Hein received a bachelor’s degree from Columbia Union College three years ago after taking courses on and off for 20 years. "She decided it was time to finish it," Neff told the Post. She planned to get a master’s degree.
Hein belonged to a steam train club, loved to read, and recently convinced Neff that they should buy bicycles and ride together.
"Sheila is — was — the love of my life," Neff told the Montgomery County, Md., Gazette last Wednesday. "She loves life and she likes people and I pray to God she’s still alive."
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| Jack Keohane (AP photo) |
Debris killed trade center onlooker
John Keohane, 41,worked at One Liberty Plaza near the World Trade Center and died when the towers collapsed. After the planes hit the Trade Center towers, Keohane met Mike Lyons, his partner of 17 years, on the street, and called his mother from his cell phone.
"They were just in the streets like everybody else," Keohane’s sister, Darlene Keohane, told the San Francisco Chronicle. "As he was talking, he had thought a third plane crashed into the building."
What Keohane thought was a third crash was really the collapse of the South tower of the World Trade Center. While Lyons survived, Keohane was killed by falling debris. His family confirmed his name on a coroner’s report three days later, the Chronicle reported.
A native of San Francisco, Keohane had lived in the New York area for a year. His family asked that memorial contributions be made to the Multiple Sclerosis Society, the American Cancer Society, or the Human Rights Campaign, a national gay lobby group.
— Contributors to these reports include Kara Fox, Lou Chibbaro Jr., Kristina Campbell and Laura Douglas-Brown.
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September 21, 2001