Two Gay Heroes Thwart Assassinations 35 Years Apart

Last month I wrote about Oliver Sipple, a gay Marine who save Gerald Ford from an assassination attempt. Now, in the wake of the mass shooting in Tucson, another gay individual is being lauded for his actions in the face of an assassination attempt, namely 20 year old Daniel Hernandez. At the time of Sipple's heroic action, he was outed and his life seemed to spiral downward. This time around, even Tony Perkins at FRC - although perhaps unwittingly and subject to a possible retraction - spoke well of Hernandez. The Los Angeles Times looks at the contrasting treatment of these two gay individuals. While Christianists fight any reference to the contributions of LGBT citizens in school curriculum, these individuals demonstrate why the larger public needs to learn a complete, LGBT inclusive history. Here are some story highlights:
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A 20-year-old congressional college intern with only five days on the job saved Gabrielle Giffords’ life. Daniel Hernandez ran toward the sound of gunshots. He pressed Safeway workers’ aprons against the congresswoman’s head wound to stanch the bleeding, and lifted her and held her upright so she wouldn’t drown in her own blood. Photos show him evidently covering her hands with his as he walked alongside her as she was carried off on a stretcher.
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Daniel Hernandez is gay, a member of Tucson’s city commission on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. I bring this up not only because gay websites are talking it up, but because it reminds me of another gay man who thwarted an assassination attempt -- but in a very different time and cultural climate.

Oliver Sipple was in a crowd outside the St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco more than 35 years ago, on Sept. 22, 1975, as President Gerald Ford was leaving the hotel. . . . Outside the San Francisco hotel, a woman named Sara Jane Moore was standing next to Sipple. She raised a .38-caliber pistol and aimed it at the president. She evidently got off one shot at Ford, and missed, before Sipple, a former Marine, grabbed her arm and took her down.
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By taking the action he did, the courts found, Sipple, and thus his sexual orientation, had become news. Sipple’s mother never spoke to him again, and Sipple died in 1989.
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Daniel Hernandez wasn’t even born when Oliver Sipple died. His heroism, too, is incontestable -- and this time, his sexuality is apparently uncontroversial, which may be one of the few hopeful things to come out of these murders and attempted murders. At least we won’t add character assassination to the actual ones.

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The reality is that LGBT citizens are found in every walk of life and time and time again we play just as important of roles and engage in acts of heroism. It's past time that society got this message and moved on from prejudice and homophobia.