USA Archives - Page 3 of 7

Mark Bingham: Gay hero of 9/11 died resisting hijackers

by Kittredge Cherry | | Saints, Sept 1-15

Gay executive and rugby player Mark Bingham lost his life while fighting back against terrorist hijackers on Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. He and other passengers worked together to prevent the hijackers from crashing the plane into a target in Washington DC, most...

Mychal Judge, gay saint of 9/11 and chaplain to New York firefighters

by Kittredge Cherry | | May 1-15, Saints, Sept 1-15, Top saints

Mychal Judge, chaplain to New York firefighters and unofficial “gay saint,” died helping others in the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001. He was the first recorded victim of 9/11. A popular Franciscan priest during his lifetime, he rose to...

Bayard Rustin: Gay saint of racial justice and non-violence

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Jan 1-15, March 16-31, Saints

Bayard Rustin was a black gay activist and the genius behind the civil rights movement. He became the chief organizer of the 1963 Civil Rights March on Washington where where Martin Luther King gave his historic “I Have a Dream Speech.” A follower of the Quaker faith...

Robert Wood: First clergy to picket for LGBTQ rights, author of first book on Christianity and homosexuality

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 15-31, Saints

Robert Watson Wood was an ordained Congregational minister who started advocating for LGBTQ rights in the early 1960s. He died Aug. 19, 2018, at age 95. In 1960 Wood urged churches to welcome lesbian and gay people in America’s first book on homosexuality and...

Delores Berry: Black lesbian evangelist blessed many with music

by Kittredge Cherry | | Aug 1-15, Saints

Delores P. Berry is a black lesbian clergywoman and evangelist whose music and ministry blessed many. She died on Aug. 8, 2017, at age 66 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania after a brief illness. Berry was born Feb. 15, 1951 in Baltimore, Maryland. She answered a call to...

Nancy Ledins: First transgender Roman Catholic priest made headlines in 1979

by Kittredge Cherry | | July 16-31, Saints

Nancy Ledins made national news as “America’s first female Roman Catholic priest” and first transgender Roman Catholic priest after gender confirmation surgery in 1979. She died on July 18, 2017, at age 82 in North Carolina. Newspapers nationwide covered her...

Sally Miller Gearhart: Lesbian educator and activist who challenged the church

by Kittredge Cherry | | July 1-15, Saints

Sally Miller Gearhart was a lesbian educator, theologian, activist and author of books including the 1974 classic “Loving Women / Loving Men: Gay Liberation and the Church.” She died on July 14, 2021 in Ukiah, California, at age 90 after a long illness. Gearhart’s...

Steve Pieters: Gay minister, longtime AIDS survivor, LGBTQ activist and friend

by Kittredge Cherry | | July 1-15, Saints

I celebrate the life of my friend and colleague Steve Pieters, influential gay clergyman, LGBTQ activist and one of the longest-surviving AIDS patients. It was considered a miracle that he survived. His ground-breaking 1985 interview with televangelist Tammy Faye...

Clergyman picketed for LGBTQ equality in Fourth of July 1965-69 protests

by Kittredge Cherry | | Calendar, July 1-15

Early LGBTQ rights protests happened every Fourth of July from 1965 to 1969 in front of Independence Hall in Philadelphia. Among the protesters was Robert W. Wood, the first member of the clergy to picket for LGBTQ rights. [2026 update: “The Story of Bob: The Life and...

Publick Universal Friend: Queer preacher reborn in 1776

by Kittredge Cherry | | July 1-15, Saints

A queer American preacher woke from a near-death experience in 1776 with the sense of being neither male nor female. Adopting the name Publick Universal Friend instead of Jemima Wilkinson, this fascinating nonbinary American fought for gender equality and founded an...