Uproar After Flag is Removed from Peace Garden for gay FDNY Chaplain

international | miscellaneous | other press

Friday August 25, 2006 01:55

by peace17

Flag removed again from tribute to F.D.N.Y chaplain Mychal Judge.

Mychal Judge,F.D.N.Y

*see attached article*

Mychael Judge, the F.D.N.Y chaplain killed in the 9/11 attacks on America, is remembered at a peace garden located in County Leitrim. At this garden, a U.S Stars And Stripes flag is flown. Recently, for the SECOND time, this flag was removed. It is unknown whether this is political, or simply mindless, the actions of local trouble-makers etc.

Father Mike ministered to the sick,who were dying of AIDS during his life- at times when many would not so much as acknowledge the difficulties of those suffering to the disease.He ministered to homosexuals, and was indeed himself a "celibate homosexual" He was known to many in the gay community as an activist, and indeed marched alongside them in the only St. Patricks Day parade that would have them in New York-the Queens parade, as they were "unwelcome" in the main NYC parade. He marched in his robee despite calls for a "boycott" from within his own church.

His family were of Irish Roots. It is said that a pebble-stone from what remained of his family home, in county Leitrim, was one of his most prized belongings. He visited Ireland during his life, and was truly in love with the island of Ireland. A man of peace, he often told friends in the Fire Dept. he felt truly at home here.

The removal of the American flag, not just once but twice- from this memorial to a fantastic American, a REAL American and an American Hero- is a sin. While that same flag may be flown by murderers and butchers, Mychal could not have been further from that. Remember,we have comrades on the left in America, a lot of qhom proudly call themselves American. The flag does not represent hate, no more than a Union Jack or any other flag. It is the flag of the American people, not the American Government. It was the flag of Mychael Judge, a proud American,a proud man of peace, a proud member of the FDNY, a man with no shame in his sexual orientation and no shame in his strong passion for peace and equality.

See the article attached for more information, and pardon the delay in posting this.

Peace, Grá, Equality.

"When you ask what difference does it make if the heroes were gay, I say I agree with you. That's precisely our point. They were just like everybody else. So we ask, why is it that when they died, they were equal to everyone, but had they lived, they would not have the same equality as heterosexuals?"

-- Judy Wieder, editor in chief of The Advocate

"Above all, he was a living example of Jesus Christ."
-- Former NYPD officer Steven McDonald

*visit dignityusa.org for more information on the group Judge himself was involved within*