Mark Kendall Bingham, who not only emerged as one of the heroes of America's biggest tragedy, has also become a symbol of hope to the nation's gay and lesbian community.

The 31-year-old gay man from San Francisco, one of the passengers on hijacked United Airlines flight 93 and other passengers are believed to have been taking over the hijacked airplane from terrorists. The plane that crashed into a field in Pennsylvania was the only one that failed to reach its target -- likely the White House or Camp David -- according to the police and media reports. The 40 passengers and crew will be posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

US Senator John McCain even flew from Washington to deliver a eulogy to honour the openly gay Bingham at his memorial service held on September 22 at the University of California at Berkeley. McCain praised Bingham's heroic sacrifice that may have saved many lives.

?I would have been in the building [United States Capitol], ?when that fateful, terrible moment occurred, and a beautiful symbol of our freedom was destroyed along with hundreds if not thousands of lives. I may very well owe my life to Mark and the others who summoned the enormous courage and love necessary to deny those depraved, hateful men their terrible triumph,? McCain said in a tearful eulogy.

Bingham was a strapping 220-pound, 6-foot-5 rugby player at Berkeley where he had played on three national championship teams. More recently, he played with the San Francisco Fog, which broke barriers by being the first gay team accepted into the Northern California Rugby Union.

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Politicians now invoke Bingham's name as an example of America's strength and spirit. California's top politicians have presented Paul Holm, Bingham's former partner of six years with an American flag; while San Francisco Supervisor Mark Leno wants to build a Bingham memorial in the city's predominantly gay Castro District.

The attacks have helped lead to some political change: Republican New York Governor George Pataki decided that partners of gays killed in violent crimes can get benefits from the New York Crime Victims Board.

Bingham, who lived most of his life in Northern California but moved to New York not long before the terrorist attacks, was president and founder of The Bingham Group, a successful public relations firm for high-tech companies, in New York and San Francisco.