In the dark days following the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington we have been best comforted in whatever small way possible by the words of our national hymns. Chief among those has been one we learned in elementary school and which over the years has returned to comfort us again and again. "America the Beautiful" was written by Katharine Lee Bates who lived for 25 years in a committed same-sex relationship with Katharine Coman whom Bates called her "joy of life." On July 22, 1893, Bates and Coman, on their first grand trip west together, climbed 14,000 feet to the top of Pikes Peak in Colorado. There Bates found inspiration for words which reach across the centuries to comfort us and give us strength and vision. We rarely sing the last three verses, too hard perhaps for grade school voices, but they speak clearly of sacrifice and heroism, liberty and mercy, heroes and tears.

One of those heroes was Father Mychal Judge, a Franciscan priest who died administering the last rites to one of the nearly 300 New York fire fighters who gave their lives to save others. Mychal Judge was a gay man. Father Judge ministered to firefighters, to their families, to anyone in pain or need. One friend said of him: "More than any priest I've known, he took the gospel as a mandate for social justice." Until the instant of his death Mychal Judge worked for justice and he offered peace.

On United Airlines Flight 93 which crashed in Pennsylvania, Mark Bingham was among the passengers who fought their attackers and who knowingly sacrificed their own lives to save the lives of strangers somewhere on the ground. At his funeral, Senator Barbara Boxer presented an American flag to Mark's partner, Paul Hoem saying clearly and deliberately, "this is the partner of Mark Bingham, to whom I am presenting this flag that flew over the Capitol building, in thanks from a grateful nation." Ronald Gamboa, his partner of 13 years, Dan Brandhorst, and their adopted 3-year-old son, David were among the victims on American Flight 11. Killed at the Pentagon, Sheila Hein, a civilian employee of the Army, left behind her partner of 17 years, Peggy Neff

Among the over 6500 people murdered on September 11 were men and women of every age, race, creed and sexual orientation. I name these here, not because their deaths are sadder because they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered, not because their heroism is more inspiring, not simply because they are some of our dead. I name them rather because they are just six more average, everyday human beings who did the best they could to live in truth, light and love, because they are simply a few among the thousands.

In those first shocking minutes of overwhelming grief and fear, one message came clear to me. I recognized the feeling of desolation. It was the same bone deep sorrow which engulfed me when I learned of Matthew Shepherd's death. One life or 6000 thousand lives, they are both incomprehensible losses, they were both terrorism, they were both designed and executed to break the human spirit, to destroy hope. But we as a people have learned year after year to turn terror into courage, to turn grief into hope, to face the world and say we will make this place safe, and fair and free.

For decades, our community has known decimation. Though the plague of HIV and AIDS has been immeasurably slower than that Tuesday's explosions, the grief, the loss, the gaping holes in society, in families and in hearts are the same. But we as a community have learned year after year to turn mourning into art, to turn sadness into determination, to turn grief into love, to turn death into a fight for life and humanity.

We have known terror, we have known grief, and we have known the horror of being scapegoats and blamed for the atrocities of others. But these are our community's gifts to the world in this hour of need -- our strength, our history, and our abiding faith that through love, and hope and justice all men and women will one day be free. Now more than ever, we must, each and every one of us, reach out, speak truth and love, and we must change the world.

The Alliance meets the 2nd and 4th Thursday of every month at 7:00pm at the office of the Pride Committee, 58 Seymour Street in Providence. Everyone is welcome.

Kate Monteiro