Our Global LBGT History: The First Recorded Death on 9/11 Was a Catholic Priest/Chaplain Who Also Happened to be Gay

Father Mychal Judge, OFM, May 11, 1933 - September 11, 2001

The body bag marked “Victim 0001″ on 11 September 2001 contained the corpse of Father Mychal Judge, a Catholic chaplain with the fire department of New York. When he heard about the disaster at the World Trade Centre, he donned his Catholic collar and firefighter garb and raced downtown.


His was the first recorded death from the attacks that morning. His life’s work should be central to the tenth anniversary commemorations of the 9/11 attacks: peace, tolerance and reconciliation.


Father Mychal was well known to the poor and afflicted of New York City and New Jersey. He helped the homeless, and people with HIV/Aids. As a member of the Franciscan order, he would often wear the traditional brown robe and sandals. But there was a half-known secret about him: he was gay. In his private diaries, the revered Catholic priest wrote, “I thought of my gay self and how the people I meet never get to know me fully.”


A very deep and sincere Hat tip to Terence Weldon at Queering the Church blog for the information included in this post. The original post may be found here.

Our Global LGBT History (Blog Series): Spotlight on Ahmet Yildiz

Ahmet Yildiz 1982 -2008

Ahmet Yildiz was an openly gay Turkish national and citizen living in Istanbul, Turkey at the time of his murder. He was murdered in 2008. He was 26 years old at the time of his death. There is considerable mystery, insinuation and uncertainty around the exact circumstances surrounding his death. What is known is that he was shot several times, fled from his assailant or assailants, was somehow able to get into his vehicle and drive a short distance before crashing his vehicle and subsequently dying a short time later at the hospital.

The prevailing theory is that Ahmet was a victim of what is called “honor killing.” An honor killing is one member of a biological family killing another member of the family or social group because of a belief that the victim has brought dishonor to the family or community. Traditionally, the vast majority of victims of honor killings have been girls and young women. In recent times however, they have extended to men as well.

Ahmets openly gay life made him the target of death threats which he received at least more than a couple of times. Despite this and the enormous pressure he faced to conceal his sexuality, he had the courage to stand his ground and remained open about it until his death.

It was apparently very well known that Ahmet's family, particularly his father, were very disturbed by his sexuality and especially his determination to be open about it. He had been vigorously pressured by his family to undergo psychotherapy designed to “correct” his sexuality though he consistently resisted such pressure. After his murder no one from his family came to claim his body. This is often true of victims of honor killing. His boyfriend who fled the country shortly after his murder was not allowed to claim his body. Ahmet's father reportedly fled to Iran after his son's murder. It is unknown if he has ever returned to Turkey.

LGBT people throughout the world, including The United States, continue to be at risk for similar fates as that suffered by Ahmet Yildiz. No one culture or country holds a monopoly on such actions. The exact technique and degree may differ from case to case. However, the end result is often the same.

May All Beings Be Free

Our Global LGBT History (Blog Series): Spotlight on David Kato

David "Kato" Kisule

February 13, 1964 – January 26, 2011

David Kato Kisule (February 13, 1964 – January 26, 2011) was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT activist. He is considered the father of Uganda's gay rights movement. He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). Kato was murdered in January of 2011, shortly after winning a lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine (a Ugandan weekly tabloid magazine not to be confused with the music magazine published in the USA) which had published his name and photograph identifying him as gay and calling for him to be executed.

Born to the Kisule clan in its ancestral village of Nakawala, Namataba Town Council, Mukono District, he received the name "Kato" because he was the younger of a pair of twins. He came out to his family members, namely his older twin brother John Malumba Wasswa, before he left to teach in Johannesburg, South Africa during its transition from apartheid to multiracial democracy, becoming influenced by the end of the apartheid-era ban on sodomy and the growth of LGBT rights there. Coming back to Uganda in 1998, he decided to come out in public through a press conference. He was promptly arrested and held in police custody for a week due to this action.

St. Herman Nkoni Boys Primary School was founded in 2002 in the Roman Catholic diocese of Masaka. Kato soon joined the faculty. He also became highly involved with the underground LGBT Rights Movement in Uganda, eventually becoming one of the founding members of SMUG in March of 2004.

According to a series of confidential cables later released by WikiLeaks, Kato spoke during a November 2009 United Nations-funded consultative conference on human rights. During the conference, Kato spoke on the issue of LGBT rights and the anti-LGBT atmosphere in Uganda, but members of the Uganda Human Rights Comission "openly joked and snickered" during the speech, and a rumor circulated that David Bahati MP, the leading proponent of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, had ordered the Inspector General of Police to arrest Kato, causing Kato and other attending members of SMUG to leave the conference immediately after he finished the speech. Bahati then made a "tirade against homosexuality" to the conference, resulting in massive applause and Martin Ssempa, an Evangelical Christian cleric, pounding his fist on the table in agreement.

By 2010, he had quit his job as a school teacher in order to focus on his work with SMUG in light of the events surrounding the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Kato was among the 100 people whose names and photographs were published in October 2010 by the Ugandan tabloid newspaper Rolling Stone in an article which called for their execution as homosexuals. Kato and two other SMUG members who were also listed in the article — Kasha Jacqueline and Julian Patience "Pepe" Onziema — sued the newspaper to force it to stop publishing the names and pictures of people it believed to be gay or lesbian. The photos were published under a headline of "Hang them” and were accompanied by the individuals' addresses. The petition was granted on November 2, 2010, effectively ruling for the end of Rolling Stone. The High Court Justice ruled that Rolling Stone's publication of the lists, and the accompanying incitation to violence, threatened Kato's and the others' "fundamental rights and freedoms;" attacked their right to human dignity; and violated their constitutional right to privacy.The court ordered the newspaper to pay Kato and the other two plaintiffs 1.5 million Ugandan shillings each.

On January 26, 2011, while talking on the phone with SMUG member Julian Pepe Onziema, Kato was assaulted in his home in Bukusa, Mukono Town by at least one unknown male assailant who hit him twice in the head with a hammer before fleeing on foot; Kato later died en route to the hospital. Several of Kato's colleagues reported that Kato had spoken of an increase in threats and harassment since the court victory, and they believe that his sexual orientation and his activism were the motive for the murder. Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both called for an in-depth and impartial investigation into the case, and for protection for gay activists. James Nsaba Buturo, the Ugandan Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity, is on record as having declared that "Homosexuals can forget about human rights".

Kato's funeral was held on January 28, 2011, in Nakawala. Present at the funeral were family, friends and co-activists, many of whom wore t-shirts bearing his photo in front and having rainbow flag colors inscribed onto the sleeves. However, the Christian preacher at the funeral preached against the gays and lesbians present, making comparisons to Sodom and Gomorrah, before the activists ran to the pulpit and grabbed the microphone from him, forcing him to retreat from the pulpit to Kato's father's house. An unidentified female activist angrily exclaimed "Who are you to judge others?" and villagers sided with the preacher as scuffles broke out during the proceedings. Villagers refused to bury Kato at his burial place; the task was then undertaken by his friends and co-workers, most of whom were gay. In place of the preacher who left the scene after the fighting, excommunicated Anglican Church of Uganda bishop Christopher Ssenyonjo officiated Kato's burial in the presence of friends and cameras.

The murder was decried by Human Rights Watch with senior Africa researcher Maria Burnett adding that "David Kato's death is a tragic loss to the human rights community." Amnesty International stated that it was "appalled by the shocking murder of David Kato," and called for a "credible and impartial investigation into his murder."Both also asked the Ugandan government to protect other gay rights activists.

President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and the State Department, and the European Union also condemned the murder and urged Uganda authorities to investigate the crime and to speak out against homophobia and transphobia. "I am deeply saddened to learn of the murder," Obama said. "David showed tremendous courage in speaking out against hate. He was a powerful advocate for fairness and freedom."

Rowan Williams, the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke on behalf of the Anglican Communion, "Such violence [as the death of David Kato] has been consistently condemned by the Anglican Communion worldwide. This event also makes it all the more urgent for the British Government to secure the safety of LGBT asylum seekers in the UK. This is a moment to take very serious stock and to address those attitudes of mind which endanger the lives of men and women belonging to sexual minorities."

For his newspaper's alleged role in the murder, Rolling Stone editor Giles Muhame stated "When we called for hanging of gay people, we meant ... after they have gone through the legal process ... I did not call for them to be killed in cold blood like he was." However, he stated, "I have no regrets about the story. We were just exposing people who were doing wrong."

In the Spring of 2011, Boston's American Repertory Theater and System of a Downs Serj Tankian dedicated their production of Prometheus Bound to Kato and seven other activists, stating in program notes that "by singing the story of Prometheus, the God who defied the tyrant Zeus by giving the human race both fire and art, this production hopes to give a voice to those currently being silenced or endangered by modern-day oppressors".

Additional Reading:

• Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill
• LGBT rights in Uganda

(NOTE: Information for this post was obtained from Wikipedia and other sources.)

Our Global LGBT History: Spotlight on Manvendra Singh Gohil (Blog Series)

Prince Manvendra Singh Gohil

Manvendra Singh Gohil was born September 23, 1965 in Ajmer and belongs to the royal family of the former princely state of Rapipla in India.

 He is the only known person of royal lineage in modern India to have publicly revealed he is gay. He is reportedly the world's only openly gay “royal” or member of a royal family. His parents attempted but failed to disinherit him after he revealed his homosexuality and since then his relations with the family have been strained.

Manvendra's homosexuality was revealed to his family by doctors in 2002 following his hospitalization for what was termed a “nervous breakdown” reportedly brought on by trying to fulfill his traditional princely duties which included embarking on a traditional and arranged heterosexual marriage. However, it was when he spoke publicly about being gay in 2006 that his family took action and accused him of bringing dishonor to the clan. They attempted to disown him. In the interim he has been reconciled and reunited with his father while is mother has remained harsh toward him. At least she stopped trying to take legal and public humiliation actions against her son.

The world became aware of Manavendra when he appeared as a guest on the Oprah Winfrey Show on October 24, 2007. He was featured in the show entitled 'Gay Around the World'. He expressed that he has no regrets about coming out, and that he believes the people of his state respect him for his leadership in prevention and education around HIV/AIDS.

On his coming out, Manvendra has said, “I knew that they would never accept me for who I truly am, but I also knew that I could no longer live a lie. I wanted to come out because I had gotten involved with activism and I felt it was no longer right to live in the closet. I came out as gay because I wanted people to openly discuss homosexuality since it’s a hidden affair with a lot of stigma attached.”

n 2000, Manvendra started the Lakshya Trust, a group dedicated to HIV/AIDS education and prevention. A registered public charitable trust, Lakshya is a community-based organization working for HIV/AIDS prevention among men who have sex with men (MSMs). It provides counseling services, clinics for treatment of sexually transmitted infections and condom-use promotion.The trust also creates employment opportunities for gay men and support for other organizations for MSMs, and plans to open a hospice/old age home for gay men.

In 2007, Manvendra joined the Interim Governing Board of the Asia Pacific Coalition on Male Sexual Health, known as APCOM, a regional coalition of MSM and HIV community-based organizations.

Since July 2010, Manvendra has served as editor of the gay male-centric print magazine Fun. He has also largely been credited with the decriminalization of homosexuality in India in the mid to late 2000s.


(NOTE: Information for this post was obtained from Wikipedia and other sources.)

Our Global LGBT History: Spotlight on Krystian Legierski (Blog Series)

Photo Credit:Wojciech Surdziel / AG (Agencja Gazeta)

  

Krystian Legierski was born April 22, 1978 in Koniaków, Poland. He is a Polish/black LGBT activist, entrepreneur and member of the Greens 2004. In local elections in late 2010 he won a seat in the Warsaw City Council. This made him the first openly gay politician elected to a political office in Poland.
He was born in Poland, to a Polish mother and a Mauritanian father. 

Legierski studied Law at the University of Warsaw. He has been active in LGBT movement in Poland for sometime. In 2003 he co-authored the first draft of a law on civil unions sponsored in the Polish Senate. This draft however, did not pass. Since 2009 he has been involved in another effort to introduce civil unions into the Polish legal system.

In 2003 he founded the club Le Madame in the Warsaw Old Town. Le Madame was a nightclub, but also a cultural center, providing space for alternative theater, music, drag queen shows, art exhibitions and political debate. It was closed by the acting mayor of Warsaw, Miroslaw Kochalski, in March 2006.The closure was met with protests, which came to be labelled as "the Polish Stonewall.” Along with Le Madame, Legierski founded a gay club Tomba Tomba (later renamed Usta Mariana) as well as M25 - a nightclub and a theater scene.

Legierski was among the founding members of the Polish Green party Green 2004. In November 2010 he won a seat in Warsaw City Council, making Poland the most recent Eastern European nation to elect a Black to public office. He ran on a Social Democratic ballot. Legierski reportedly stated, shortly after his election "I can’t compare myself to Harvey Milk, but I’m glad that I am the first openly gay candidate to be elected for a public office in Poland.” He also spoke of the intersection of race and sexuality in the election stating, "In Poland there are so few blacks that nobody has ever done research on how many there are. It would not pay to do it. But without a black-emancipation movement, and without a strong organization of sexual minorities, after just 20 years of democracy, we have achieved what elsewhere sometimes took generations. Poland showed its tolerant and nondiscriminatory face."

(NOTE: Information for this post was obtained from Wikipedia and other sources.)