Mark Bingham - Nominee

"This is Mark Bingham. I want to let you guys know that I love you, in case I don't see you again...I'm on United Airlines, Flight 93. It's being hijacked."

- Mark Bingham leaving a message on his aunt’s answering machine on that fateful day

On Sept. 11, 2001, 31 year old gay public relations executive and rugby player Mark Bingham was onboard United Airlines Flight 93 when it was hijacked by al Queda terrorists who took control of the plane’s cockpit on that fateful day. The hijackers forced the passengers into the back of the plane which caused them to contact their family members and that is when they learned about the attacks on the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C. Bingham called his mother Alice Hoagland (the last words she heard from him were “I love you.”) and left a message for his aunt to alert them about what was happening on his flight after he and three other men (Todd Beamer, Tom Burnett and Jeremy Glick) decided to fight back. They realized that their plane was going to be used as a weapon to attack another high profile building (the U.S. Capitol or the White House) when it changed course toward Washington, D.C. so they stormed the cockpit to prevent that from happening. Bingham and the other men were successful since the plane crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. All 40 people (including the four hijackers) onboard that plane died. That day made Bingham an international hero, especially within his own LGBTQ community. His heroics were also on display prior to 9/11 when he fought off an armed mugger to protect his romantic partner Paul Holm whom he was with until his death. Bingham also proudly showed off the scar that were the result of him being gored at the Running of the Bulls in Pamplona, Spain. He was born in 1970 and raised by his mother in Miami, Florida; Southern California and San Jose, California. As a teen, Bingham was an aspiring filmmaker who used his video camera to document his life. While attending Los Gatos High School Bingham started playing rugby and became the captain of his high school team for two years. Bingham also played on two championship-winning rugby teams as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley). After Bingham graduated from college he came out as gay to his family and friends. He helped found the International Gay Rugby (IGR) team San Francisco Fog RFC and played with them (later becoming their coach) and was in the early stages of setting up another IGR team, Gotham Knights RFC, in New York City where he had moved to just before his death. Bingham was a public relations executive who started his own firm, the Bingham Group, in San Francisco and New York City. Following Bingham’s death, IGR members created a competition in his honor called the Bingham Cup in 2002 which is held biannually in even-numbered years. In 2005, UC Berkeley Foundation and the California Alumni Association created the Mark Bingham Award for Excellence in Achievement by Young Alumni in his honor. Bingham’s name is included on the white marble Wall of Names alongside the other passengers and crew at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Somerset County and at the South Pool on Panel S-67 at the National 9/11 Memorial in New York City where the Flight 93 passengers and crew are memorialized. He was also posthumously awarded the Arthur Ashe Courage Award in 2002 alongside his fellow Flight 93 passengers. Artist Danie Bissler painted Bingham’s portrait which featured a saintly halo, rainbow stripe and pink triangle shortly after 9/11. Lesbian singer Melissa Etheridge’s song “Tuesday Morning” pays tribute to Bingham’s bravery. A biography by Jon Barrett, Hero of Flight 93: Mark Bingham, was published in 2002 and two documentaries were made about his life—The Rugby Player which focuses on him and his bond with his mother in 2013 and in 2019, the World Rugby produced Legacy: The Mark Bingham Story.