It’s been 24 years since the September 11th attacks. A morning that fractured reality as we knew it and reshaped everything from airport security to foreign policy. For many who were alive at the time, the memory of where they were when the planes hit is seared into their brains. Maybe it was second-period biology. Maybe it was the car radio on the way to work. Maybe it was silence that fell over classrooms, cities, homes.
And yet, even after all these years, some of the most powerful stories of that day still haven’t been told widely enough, especially the queer ones.
Let’s change that.
Mark Bingham was one of the passengers aboard United Flight 93, the plane that went down in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Alongside Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett, and Jeremy Glick, Mark helped lead the charge to storm the cockpit and stop the hijackers from reaching their target, believed to be either the White House or the U.S. Capitol. All 44 passengers and crew were killed, but their resistance likely saved hundreds, maybe thousands of lives.
Mark was also proudly, openly gay.
A former rugby player, a son, a partner, a friend, Mark defied every stereotype of what it meant to be queer in America at the time. And in a world that too often tries to separate queerness from bravery, queerness from patriotism, and queerness from sacrifice, Mark’s story rips those binaries apart.
He wasn’t just incidentally gay. He wasn’t a footnote. He was a fully out man who loved fiercely, lived boldly, and showed that queerness and heroism are not opposites. They are often intertwined.
His partner of six years, Paul Holm, spoke of Mark’s strength, humor, and passion. Mark was the kind of person who ran toward danger when it mattered most. That courage came from who he was, shaped by love, identity, struggle, and an unshakable sense of self.
So why don’t we hear his name every September?
Why is queer history still something we have to dig up, rather than something we’re taught?
We remember Mark today because his story is ours. It’s part of a long legacy of queer resilience, of people who showed up, stood up, and pushed back even when the world tried to erase them.
Mark Bingham deserves to be remembered not just as a 9/11 hero, but as a queer hero.
And we, as a community, will keep telling his story. Loudly. Proudly. Year after year.
