In what he describes as the first horrifying hours following the crash of two hijacked jetliners into both World Trade Center towers, causing them to collapse, Levi said the ESPA staff joined other New Yorkers in helping survivors and victims any way they could.

“We opened the doors to our offices, which were on 12th Street at the time, to people as they were fleeing the World Trade Center site and coming downtown,” he said. “Many of them came right by our offices and so people were coming in just to use the bathroom and get some water and make phone calls,” he said.

“And in that way we were just a member of the New York family that had to go through this horrible event,” Levi said.

But Levi and other LGBT activists observing the Sept. 11 events as they unfolded said they quickly discovered within a week of the attacks that same-sex partners of those killed, injured or missing in the World Trade Center collapse faced additional hurdles in obtaining government and private sector assistance.

He said ESPA first became aware that same-sex partner survivors were being treated differently when the city and private relief agencies like the Red Cross set up an emergency station on a pier along New York’s Hudson River where people could go to find a family member missing and as yet unaccounted for in the World Trade Center carnage.

Related:
Gays among heroes, victims of Sept. 11

“Literally [gay] people had to go there, turn around, go back home and get some paperwork that spouses didn’t have to get to prove a relationship existed,” Levi said. “You were nervous and scared and sad and then you had to go through that. And worse, other people turned them away, even with the paperwork, saying sorry you’re not a family according to our guidelines.”

Activists reflecting on the Sept. 11 tragedy this week said New York City and New York State officials quickly recognized the inequities faced by same-sex partner survivors and took steps to change polices and laws to correct the situation. The changes began to take place, activists, said, following news media reports of the loss of individual LGBT people at the World Trade Center and at the Pentagon just outside Washington, which was hit by a third hijacked plane.

“It had such an impact because the loss was about death and relationships,” said Jennifer Pizer, senior counsel for Lambda Legal, an LGBT litigation group, in a 2006 interview with the Blade at the time of the 5th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“The grief and loss was the same between heterosexual and same-sex couples, and a perception of this seemed to come through to much of the public,” Pizer said.

Blade File Photo

Mark Bingham, pictured here with partner Paul Holm, helped prevent United Flight 93 from reaching D.C. Those passengers are widely credited with saving the U.S. Capitol or White House on Sept. 11, 2001.

Among the victims widely reported on
by the media was Mark Bingham, a gay
public relations executive and avid
rugby player from San Francisco, who
was one of the passengers on United
Airlines Flight 93, which crashed
into the countryside in Pennsylvania.

Bingham’s mother said she spoke to
him by cell phone after his hijacked
plane was believed to be heading
toward Washington, D.C. for another
terrorist attack. She said she believes
her son was part of a small group of passengers believed to have attempted to wrestle control of the plane from the hijackers.

Authorities have speculated that passengers such as Bingham and others most likely intervened to prevent the hijackers from crashing the jetliner into a building in Washington, such as the Capitol or the White House.

Bingham was among the 9/11 victims portrayed in the Hollywood film “United 93.”

Blade File Photo

American Airlines pilot David Charlebois, who was gay, served as co-pilot onboard American Airlines Flight 77 when terrorists hijacked it and crashed it into the Pentagon.

Another of the victims widely reported in the media was American Airlines pilot David Charlebois, who was gay and an active member of the National Gay Pilots Association. Charlebois was serving as first officer, or co-pilot, onboard American Airlines Flight 77 when terrorists hijacked the Boeing 757 jetliner and crashed it into the Pentagon.

All of its crew and passengers perished along with dozens of Pentagon employees working in the part of the building struck by the plane.

Charlebois’ surviving partner of 14 years, Tom Hay, was treated with respect and honor by American Airlines’ top brass and colleagues when more than a dozen uniformed company pilots and flight attendants attended Charlebois’ funeral mass at St. Matthews Cathedral in downtown D.C.

“It was a time when all Americans did come together with a single, united focus,” said David Smith, vice president of programs for the Human Rights Campaign and the national LGBT advocacy group’s media spokesperson at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“And there were extraordinary acts of kindness and recognition that this is an issue that needs to be dealt with, i.e., our families need to be protected,” Smith said. “But it also really brought into stark reality how the lack of recognition of our families causes real pain and at times almost insurmountable challenges that families that are protected by law through marriage don’t have to experience.”

Levi said ESPA was pleased when, in response to requests by LGBT advocacy groups and media reports, then GOP Gov. George Pataki issued an executive order in October 2001 that included surviving partners of gay and lesbian victims of the World Trade Center attacks in receiving full spousal benefits from the state’s Crime Victims Board.

“The order marks the first official step taken by any level of government in the nation to address the inequities faced by gay and lesbian survivors of the terrorist attacks in obtaining benefits,” ESPA said in a statement at the time.

The New York State Legislature soon followed suit by passing three separate bills that included same-sex partner survivors in various state benefits to be allocated to 9/11 survivors and their families. One provided state worker’s compensation benefits to domestic partners of 9/11 victims.

Another bill approved by the legislature enabled same-sex partners and their children to be eligible for a newly created World Trade Center Memorial Scholarship Program. A third bill passed by the legislature called on the federal government to include same-sex partners in federal relief programs for 9/11 survivors.

A short time later, the Red Cross responded to requests by ESPA, HRC, Lambda Legal and other LGBT groups by opening up its disaster relief programs to same-sex partner survivors. Activists called the action historic and noted it resulted in badly needed relief for LGBT victims of Hurricane Katrina, which struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast several years later.

On the federal level, President George W. Bush and Republican members of Congress joined Democrats in approving a massive, $7 billion Sept. 11 Victim Compensation Fund. Officials said the program was aimed at providing a viable alternative to thousands of individual wrongful death lawsuits that likely would have emerged against airline companies and the company that operated the World Trade Center if such a fund were not created.

But LGBT advocacy groups once again discovered that the relief funds would likely be out of reach for surviving same-sex partners of 9/11 victims. Among other things, the fund’s administrator, attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who had worked for the late U.S. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), said rules for who is eligible for receiving as much as $1.3 million in compensation payments would have to be linked to state probate laws and rules.

At the time, no state probate law recognized same-sex relationships, even if they were made legal on the local level by a city or county domestic partnership ordinance.

ESPA, HRC, Lambda Legal and other advocacy groups said they worked hard to lobby the U.S. Justice Department, which had jurisdiction over the compensation fund program, to take administrative steps to include same-sex couples survivors in the program.

At the time, Feinberg told the Blade that while he was concerned about the plight of surviving domestic partners of the Sept. 11 victims, it was not feasible to include specific domestic partner provisions in the relief fund’s regulations.

“If I get in the middle of that fight and try and trump local probate law in a particular case, I’ll be up to my neck in lawsuits,” he said. “I’m not saying they’re not entitled,” he said. “I’m not saying they are entitled.”

Smith of HRC said at least two of about 22 known LGBT partner survivors in the Sept. 11 attacks did receive compensation from the fund. Smith said the compensation payments came about, however, when surviving blood relatives chose not to challenge the same-sex partners’ application for the compensation.

In a separate development, HRC, ESPA, Lambda Legal and other LGBT advocacy groups created the September 11 Gay & Lesbian Family Fund to provide some relief to surviving partners who were ineligible for help from the federal relief fund program.

In a May 2006 announcement, ESPA said the known surviving partners of gay or lesbian victims of 9/11 had received nearly $17,315 each from the new Gay & Lesbian Family Fund. ESPA said at the time that the groups raised a total of $378,812 for the fund, with only $11,193, or 2.9 percent, being spent on administrative costs.

“The Family Fund was established in December [2001] to help offset the discrimination gay and lesbian partners faced in obtaining benefits automatically afforded to surviving spouses, including Social Security and Workers Compensation survivor benefits, and compensation under the Federal 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund,” the ESPA statement said.

“I don’t think there is one of us who were of remembering age who lives their life the same on Sept. 11 at 8 o’clock in the morning as we did at 10 o’clock in the morning on that day,” said Winnie Stachelberg, senior vice president for external affairs for the Center for American Progress, and who served as HRC’s political director in 2001.

“And my hope is it’s changed us to respect our diversity, to honor our humanity,” she said. “I don’t know if we’ve embraced those lessons but in this 10th year anniversary if we don’t remember that we need to honor our diversity and our humanity we will not have learned from the tragedy of Sept. 11.”

Another of the widely reported 9/11 victims was Father Mychal Judge, a gay Catholic priest and beloved New York Fire Department chaplain. Judge was killed when struck by falling debris next to the World Trade Center while he was performing last rites for a dying firefighter. His sexual orientation, while not widely known until after his death, was confirmed by New York Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, who told New York magazine that Judge confided to him that he was both gay and celibate.

In 2002, Congress honored Judge by using his name for the landmark Mychal Judge Police and Fire Chaplains Public Safety Officers Benefit Act. The law marked the first time the federal government had extended an equal benefit for same-sex couples, in this case allowing domestic partners of public safety officers killed in the line of duty to obtain a federal death benefit.

Couples were chosen to wed in the specially designed chapels through a contest sponsored by the wedding planning website, The Knot.

Image: CNN

Pastor Mark Cutolo officiates over the marriage of Scott Baumann and Tom Corujo.

With every “I do,” jubilant whoops and cheers burst from the crowd, a mix of friends, family and passers-by.

The weddings, although held adjacent to the commotion of New York City’s Columbus Circle, felt comfortably ensconced in Central Park. The event’s organizers reported no protests or disturbances throughout the day.

Full story: CNN

Pop Up Chapel with The Knot provided the pre-selected couples with an officiant, photographer, flowers, hair & makeup stylists, cupcakes and the location — all at no cost.

They chose 24 couples in a nod to the day in which same-sex marriage was passed and became legal in New York — the bill was approved in the legislature and signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo on June 24, and too effect July 24.

According to a press release by the group, five Queer Rising members handcuffed and chained themselves in the middle of the street and refused to leave the demonstration.

Those arrested were: Natasha Dillon (26, lesbian activist); Kevin Donohue (51, gay Jewish activist); Melissa Kleckner (31, straight ally); Ali Lozano (20, lesbian student activist); Robert Moore (30, gay Mormon activist).

“My religious beliefs require that I stand up for the underdog – even when that underdog is me,” said Donohue.

“Marriage rights go way beyond the wedding and encompass everything from custody rights to hospital visitation rights to pension and inheritance rights; in short, the protective legal framework straight families take for granted. Inequality under law is unjust, and now is the time we must end it.”

One of many videos of Monday’s demonstration circulating the internet, this is of Lozano’s arrest:

In a separate demonstration, Drag Queen Weddings for Equality staged a separate event at New York’s Grand Central Station, where ten drag queens officiated mock gay weddings.

Damian Furtch

Police have arrested one of two men responsible for an alleged hate crime attack on a gay man in New York City’s West Village last month, but the man arrested claims the attack was not a hate crime — because he is also gay.

Anthony Bray, 21, confessed to the March 27 attack on Damian Furtch, 26, but said he attacked Furtch “because he was disrespectful,” not because of anti-gay bias.

The New York Daily News reports:

“The fact that the attacker in custody alleges he is gay does not change the fact that he shouted anti-gay slurs while attacking me,” Furtch said in a statement.

“I look forward to the criminal trial where all of the accurate details will come out.”

Cops said they haven’t ruled out the possibility of slapping Bray with hate crime charges, but one police source suggested that’s unlikely.

“It might come down to two guys having a fistfight,” the source said.

The early morning attack reportedly ignited after the three men got into a heated exchange inside a McDonalds restarant. Bray, and a yet unidentified suspect, allegedly made fun of Furtch’s bright-colored clothing.

According to Furtch, his attackers followed him outside the restaurant, and shouted “You Fucking Faggot” while pummeling him with repeated blows to his face and head.

The attack was caught on a police surveillance camera; watch:

Furtch suffered a broken nose, two black eyes, and required stitches and surgery that reportedly lasted several hours.

Bray, who is homeless, has a criminal record that includes arrests for marijuana, graffiti and robbery.

Damian Furtch

New York City police are searching for two men responsible for a hate crime attack on a gay man in the city’s West Village over the weekend.

Via Steph Watts, Watts Up With This???:

26 year old Damian Furtch was on his way home from work at a restaurant late Sat night (Sunday morning), when he stopped off at a McDonalds in NYC’s West Village ( a predominantly gay area) to get some food. It was approx. 4:30 am.

While inside the restaurant Damian noticed 2 men staring at him — giving him “looks” — we have all been there, we know what this feels like. It was late, Damian was tired, he felt uncomfortable and he didn’t want any trouble so he left.

He was across the street, walking away while on the phone to a friend when the 2 men from McDonalds approached him and asked him “if he had a problem” before he knew it he was punched in the face by one man, then instantly felt another punch by the second perp, and then he heard it — “You Fucking Faggot,” the words as hurtful as the punches.

Furtch took several punches to the face before escaping his attackers. He fled to a nearby hospital.

“Well I thought I was safe in the city I loved, but apparently wearing florescent colored clothing and pink shoe laces really bother some fucking assholes to blind side me and hit me …. 4 stitches, thanks bitches,” Furtch posted on his Facebook page on Sunday, along with additional photos.

Bronx gang members taken into custody following anti-gay attacks.

The suspects, ranging in age from 16 to 23, have been charged with assault, unlawful imprisonment, sodomy, and menacing hate crimes. A ninth suspect is still at large.

In the first incident, the suspected gay recruit, a 17-year-old male, was forced into an unoccupied apartment early Sunday morning. “He was beaten and sodomized with the wooden handle of a plunger,” according to NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

The attackers shouted anti-gay slurs during the attack, he said.

In the subsequent attacks, the gang members allegedly lured another 17-year-old victim, and a 30-year-old man to the same apartment with a story that there was a party there. The gang believed that both teens had gay encounters with the older male.

The 30-year-old victim was reportedly stripped, beaten and sodomized with a small baseball bat, according to police.

At a press conference Saturday afternoon, Mayor Michael Bloomberg and City Council Speaker Christine Quinn denounced the attacks.

Bloomberg said he was “sickened” by the violence, which came amid heightened attention to anti-gay bullying following a string of teen suicides attributed to it last month around the country.

“Like many New Yorkers, I was sickened by the brutal nature of these crimes and saddened by the anti-gay bias that contributed to them,” Bloomberg said. “The heartless men who committed these crimes should know that their fellow New Yorkers will not tolerate their vicious acts, or the hatred that fuels them.”

Quinn, the city’s highest-ranking openly gay official, called the attacks “vile” and “horrifying.”

“These attacks are appalling and are even more despicable because the victims were clearly targeted in acts of hate simply because they are gay,” Quinn said. “The cowardly few who committed these crimes do not represent New Yorkers, and our community will not be cowed by such violence.”

And earlier Saturday, Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign, issued the this statement:

“It is tragic to see what hate can do. These three men were brutally attacked and sodomized simply for who they are,” Solmonese said.

“Authorities must vigorously prosecute the perpetrators of these hateful crimes. Unfortunately, these crimes come on the heels of several other recently reported hate crimes in New York City. These crimes only emphasize the need for strong federal and state hate crimes laws.”

The suspects arrested Thursday and Friday were identified as Ildefonzo Mendez, 23; David Rivera, 21; four 17-year-olds, Steven Caraballo, Denis Peitars, Nelson Falu and Bryan Almonte; and Brian Cepeda, 16. The eighth suspect, Elmer Confresi, 23, turned himself in on Saturday.

All are believed to members of the Latin King Goonies street gang.

Kelly said that a lawyer representing the ninth suspect had arranged for his client to turn himself in, but never showed.

At around 6 p.m. in the main concourse of the nation’s busiest transit hub, demonstrators lowered themselves to the ground and assumed a dead position, arms folded across their chests.

Event organizers J. Todd Fernandez and Eugene Lovendusky read the names of LGBT victims of murder or suicide prompted by anti-gay bullying and violence, while another organizer, Alan Bounville, unfurled a large yellow banner reading: “End Homo / Transphobic apartheid in America.”

The demonstration, called “Flash Mob: Homophobia Kills Die-In,” was staged to honor those LGBTQ people who have been murdered or committed suicide due to anti-gay bullying and hate crimes, and to demand “sexual orientation and gender identity” are added to the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The peaceful demonstration, lasting fewer than five minutes, created a blockade for thousands of commuters rushing to and from the subway and commuter trains. Following the “die-in,” protesters chanted “Civil Rights Now” for several more minutes.

At least two of the event organizers were arrested by Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and charged with misdemeanor obstruction of pedestrian traffic. They were cited and quickly released.

For 12 days leading up to the Grand Central action, the organizers — Queer SOS! and the AEB Project — have held vigils outside the Manhattan election campaign office of Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), demanding she introduce legislation to amend the 1964 Act.

According to GMHC, “I Love My Boo” will be a multifaceted social marketing campaign that thoughtfully increases the visibility of Black and Latino gay men.

This campaign educates the community at-large, and promotes acceptance and understanding in a climate where gay men of color are seldom represented favorably in the media.

The “I Love My Boo” campaign speaks to, and celebrates, gay men of color by highlighting their strengths and resiliencies. Rather than only sexualizing gay relationships, with chiseled bodies and glossy imagery, the beauty of this campaign is that it features intimacy and focuses on what is possible for gay men of color as they express trust, respect and commitment for one another.

The campaign “reinforces GMHC’s ongoing commitment — since our earliest days — in addressing homophobia and reducing the spread of HIV among gay men,” said Dr. Marjorie Hill, GMHC’s Chief Executive Officer.

“The campaign directly challenges homophobia, and acknowledges the value of love, sex, desire, and relationships in the lives of gay men while encouraging dialogue,” she added.

Noting racial disparities and HIV/AIDS prevention is nothing new, the GMHC shared grim figures for black and Latino gays in the country who are infected with HIV.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released a report just last week that revealed that 1 in 5 gay and bisexual men are infected with HIV. Half of those men 44% are not even aware of it. What’s more saddening is that gays of color — Latino and black men, were the most likely to be oblivious of their HIV status.

Photo: © Jamie McGonnigal www.TalkAboutEquality.org

The group, members of the LGBT civil disobedience group Queer Rising, chanted “one struggle, one fight, marriage is a civil right,” as they blocked the entrance to the office after 20 same-sex couples tried to obtain marriage licenses and were rejected.

Alan Bounville, Jake Goodman, Justin Elzie and Gabriel Yuri Bollag were arrested, while more than 50 gay marriage supporters held a rally in the park across the street.

A spokesperson for Queer Rising, Spring Super, said:

“New York City is home to the Stonewall Riots and in that tradition we are here to say that equality doesn’t arrive through the ballot box. The bankrupt strategy of putting all efforts into electing so-called ‘friendly’ officials has failed. We must shift to building a grassroots, national movement that demands full equality by any means necessary. Today, through our symbolic marriage applications, rally and civil disobedience, that message was quite clear…We want everyone in New York from Mayor Michael Bloomberg to City Council Speaker Christine Quinn to know that LGBT people in their chosen Mecca are not going to let their elected officials to consistently overlook them and forsake their basic rights any longer.”

The protesters were released from custody later in the day, according to a post on the group’s Twitter page.

Earlier today, Goodman posted to Facebook:

“To my Queer Rising family, I am SO incredibly inspired by all that we dared and succeeded to accomplish together, yesterday. Obviously, there is so much work to continue but, for just one minute, I want to bask in my love for you. I am brought to tears thinking about all the passion, commitment, bravery, grace and SOLIDARITY I saw so many people exhibit yesterday.”

More photos from the rally at TalkAboutEquality.org.

Paul Bruno, 27, and his partner were sitting close to one another after hailing a taxi Monday night.

Bruno (pictured) told the Post that the taxi driver, Medhat Monhamed, pulled the car over after driving only two blocks and said, “You guys have to get out of the taxi! Hugging is not allowed in here!”

The couple immediately filed a complaint against the driver with the Taxi and Limousine Commission.

The city’s TLC spokesperson Allan Fromberg told the Post that the commission “would take such an allegation very seriously and fully investigate.”

In New York, “service refusals” can be costly, because cab drivers can be fined for denying rides to passengers. A third strike can result in the loss of a cabbie’s license.

Bruno said, “I don’t know if it was a personal or religious thing. But it’s never OK to deny anyone a ride, especially when it’s such blatant and direct discrimination.”

Full story at The New York Post.