Sept. 11 introduced U.S. to gay families

[cboy4]

On fifth anniversary, activists ponder impact of attacks on gay couples’ rights

Less than a week after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks rocked the United States and much of the world, Tom Hay sat tensely in a pew near the front of St. Matthews Cathedral in Washington, D.C.

Minutes earlier, dozens of flight crew employees of American Airlines, wearing their formal, navy blue dress uniforms, filed into the cathedral to join Hay and hundreds of others for a memorial mass for pilot David Charlebois.

Charlebois, Hay’s domestic partner for nearly 13 years, held the position of first officer onboard American Airlines Flight 77 at the time terrorists hijacked the Boeing 757 jetliner and crashed it into the Pentagon.

Hay was among at least 22 known survivors of same-sex partners that died in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, which included crashing two other jetliners into New York’s World Trade Center buildings. A fourth hijacked plane plunged into the countryside in Western Pennsylvania.

http://www.southernvoice.com/2006/9-8/news/national/septeleven.cfm

Interesting article about how most of the 22 gay widows and widowers would soon face a tangle of legal obstacles over inheritance rights and a first-of-its-kind victim compensation program offered by the federal government that would complicate their lives and, in many cases, add to their grief.

[xchrom]

1. i think the epidemic first introduced gay families

to americans.

but i guess they have to be cast as victims of terror for this article to admit it.

[cboy4]

2. Of course, of course. But there are lots of 5th anniversary side bars

floating around, and this story is actually pretty interesting.

I just cut and pasted the the article headline, which could have certainly been more accurate.

[xchrom]

3. i'm not being a ''denier''.

just pointing out our stories were there during the fire storm of the epidemic -- and that MAYBE our stories are more palatable when served up in a certain context.

that's all.

we agree when it comes down to it.

[bertha katzenengel]

4. Thank you for posting this link. I wish I were stronger, but jesus christ,

it just makes me too angry to cope -- to read about the kind of normalcy our lives are denied by our government.

We all -- especially those of us who want to marry legally -- suffer from inequality under the law. It makes me FURIOUS.

I can't read this right now. I'll save the article to read when I'm less raw.

Thanks again.