(New York City) The seventh anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon is being observed in both New York and Washington today.

In New York, it will be marked near Ground Zero with four minutes of silence and the somber reading of the names of those who died that day. Both Barack Obama and John McCain will put away their political differences for a joint appearance at the ceremony.

It will be held at Zuccotti Park, a block away from the former World Trade Center site. Last year was the first time the memorial was held at the park and not Ground Zero, because of construction safety concerns.

A similar observance will be held at the Pentagon

The total GLBT number of deaths may never be known. Not all of the victims were ‘out’.

But the list of those who were out is crosses all strata of American life: from Mark Bingham, the ad agency owner who joined his fellow passengers on United Flight 93 to take on the terrorists, to Mychal Judge, the gay Catholic priest who died while giving the last rites to a fallen fireman at the World Trade Center, to a gay couple on their way home.

For those who seek to harm the gay community, it was an opportunity to score points. Fundamentalist preacher Jerry Falwell attempted to blame gays for the terrorist attack.

For the families of those who died, however, it was a glaring example of the inequity facing people in same-sex relationships.

Scapegoating

As families attempted to cope with tragedy of 9/11, fundamentalist Christian minister Jerry Falwell blamed gays and pro choice advocates for the devastating terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Speaking on the religious television program 700 Club, Falwell said, “The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say ‘you helped this happen’.”

He later apologized, but other conservative Christians jumped on the blame bandwagon. A coalition of evangelical Christian leaders, including Focus on the Family head James Dobson released a statement saying “the results of the recent days are a reflection of the crumbling foundation of America. It is time to reflect and repent.”

However, there were gays and lesbians who showed heroism in the midst of horror, and these are who we remember today.

Here is a tribute to just a few of the openly gay people who died in the Sept. 11 attacks.

Mark Bingham

In a tragic way, Mark Bingham spent much of his life preparing for what happened to him on Sept. 11. As he boarded United Flight 93, Bingham carried with him a sense of confidence and competitiveness and the deep friendship of those close to him.

Mark Bingham

Mark Bingham, all 6 feet, 5 inches of him, loved a lot of things: food and wine shared with good company, discussions on politics, travel to foreign lands and laughing with friends. He built his public relations firm into one of the most respected small agencies in America with offices in San Francisco and New York.

Rugby was also a big part of his life. He was a sophomore on Cal State’s 1991 national championship team – the squad that started a string of 11 consecutive national titles.

Bingham never strayed from a fight. He played to win, always using the skills he learned in college rugby.

September 11, he used those same skills to protect a nation.

As the flight was taken over by terrorists, Bingham and a few other courageous men fought back. The burly Bingham used his cell phone to call his mother and tell her the plane was being hijacked and that he loved her.

Moments later the plane crashed into a Pennsylvania farm field.

Transcripts from the flight recorder indicated that the terrorists had intended to crash the plane into the U.S. Capitol building.

Mychal Judge

A leader in Dignity, the organization of gay Catholics, a priest, and a chaplain for the New York Fire Department, Mychal Judge was killed during the collapse of the towers while giving the last rites to a dying firefighter.

Mychal Judge

The firemen loved him. He had an encyclopedic memory for their family members’ names, birthdays, and passions; he frequently gave them whimsical presents. Once, after visiting President Clinton in Washington, he handed out cocktail napkins emblazoned with the presidential seal. He’d managed to stuff dozens of them into his habit before leaving the White House.

Back in the early 1980s, Judge was one of the first members of the clergy to minister to young gay men with AIDS, officiating at their funeral Masses and consoling their partners and family members. He opened the doors of St. Francis of Assisi Church when Dignity needed a home for its AIDS ministry, and he later ran an aids program at St. Francis.

In 2000, he marched in the first gay-inclusive St. Patrick’s Day parade, which his friend Brendan Fay, a gay activist, organized in Queens.

Within minutes of the attack on the first tower of the World Trade Center, Father Mike was on the scene. When the tower collapsed, trapping firefighters, he went through the debris giving comfort to the dying.

As he gave the Last Rites to one firefighter, the second tower fell on top of him.

Gay Family Dies Together

Daniel Brandhorst 42, and his partner, 33-year-old Ronald Gamboaa, were flying home to Los Angeles with their 3-year-old son David Brandhorst, when terrorists commandeered the United Airlines jet they were on shortly after it left Boston’s Logan Airport.

Brandhorst was a lawyer with PricewaterhouseCoopers in Los Angeles. Gamboaa, who was originally from Louisville, Ky, managed an L.A.- area Gap store. The couple had recently bought a home in the Hollywood Hills area.

Names of the lost

A gay British man also perished on flight 175.

Graham Berkeley, 37, a product management director for software company Compuware, had been scheduled to fly from his home in Boston to a conference in Los Angeles.

On board the other plane which hit the skyscrapers was 41-year-old Jeffrey Collman, a 41-year-old flight attendant. Also on board was lesbian Carol Flyzik.

The first officer on American flight 77, which slammed into the Pentagon, was David Charlebois, a member of the gay pilots association. Also on that flight was Joe Ferguson, a 39-year-old worker for the National Geographic Society.

At The Twin Towers

Renee Barrett, injured in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center died of her injuries several weeks later in Cornell-Presbyterian Hospital.

Barrett was a member of MCC New York. She left behind her life partner Enez Cooper and her 18-year-old son, Eddie, who lived with them.

Barrett was an employee of Cantor Fitzgerald, and was in Tower One at the time of the attacks. Though critically burned, she escaped the building just prior to its collapse.

41-year-old John Keohane was at work near the World Trade Center when the planes hit. He was killed by falling debris.

At The Pentagon

Sheila Hein, 51, a civilian Army employee who worked as a management analyst, died when a hijacked American Airlines jet slammed into the Pentagon. When rescue workers found Hein’s remains, she was wearing a gold band that her life partner Peggy Neff had given her.

Recognizing Gay Partners

Neff was later awarded $557,390 for the loss of her partner of 18 years by Kenneth Feinberg, special master of the federal government’s 9/11 Compensation Fund. It is believed to be the first federal government recognition of a same-sex couple.

The decision was criticized by Republicans who pointed to the federal Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits Washington from recognizing gay unions.

Neff was not eligible for state aid from the state of Virginia where the couple lived and owned a home.

For the families of those killed in New York it was a different story.

A New York state law providing workers’ compensation benefits to the families of victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center was passed and included 22 lesbian and gay survivors. Spokespeople for gay groups that assisted these surviors have said that since then, other family members of gay victims have come forward unoffically.

The tragedy also resulted in the American Red Cross establishing guidelines that provided help for gay domestic partners. It later extended the guidelines to provide the same disaster relief assistance that spouses receive for any disaster.

Read 365gay’s story on the continuing struggle of gay emergency responders who worked at the World Trade Center site.

For a more full list of other LGBT people lost on Sept. 11, click here.