Their portrayal of Bingham as a courageous gay man certainly nourished the gay community's need for heroes as well.

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But these discussions, though important and unavoidable, overlook a much more profound aspect of Bingham's contribution to the national dialogue.

At 31, Bingham had reached a turning point. He and friend Amanda Mark had discussed a mutual desire to create a meaningful legacy, and writing was an option he found appealing. His response to a 1989 personals ad now reads as an insightful reflection on the necessity and risks of coming out. Correspondence with a friend doing volunteer youth work in Africa also reveals a fervent desire for a vocation of service.

A lengthy e-mail message to his rugby teammates could serve as a model of encouragement to all underdog contenders. In this message, he recalled the fears of rejection he had when he first began playing rugby, and then added, "As we worked and sweated and ran and talked together this year, I finally felt accepted as a gay man and a rugby player. My two irreconcilable worlds came together."

All of these communications are preserved in the 2002 biography by Jon Barrett. Because Bingham expressed these views with stunning clarity, they leave us a poignant and inspirational testament of an examined, if tragically shortened, life.

Bingham's mother has emerged as an articulate advocate and public speaker for airline safety, glbtq equality, and inclusiveness. At the time of the hijacking Bingham was returning to California to participate in a Muslim friend's wedding, a point Alice Hoglan emphasized when responding to anti-Muslim sentiments in the wake of 9/11.

Bingham is the subject of Melissa Etheridge's song "Tuesday Morning" (on her cd Lucky, 2004).

Friends and colleagues of Bingham have established the Mark Bingham Leadership Fund to provide University of California, Berkeley tuition and expenses to young men and women who reflect Bingham's qualities of leadership, scholarship, and sociability. The University of California, Berkeley Alumni Association has also established an award to memorialize Bingham. The City of San Francisco renamed the gym at the Eureka Valley Recreation Center in Bingham's honor. The International Gay Rugby Association has honored Bingham's memory by naming its biennial tournament the Bingham Cup.

Many of the friends who carry Mark Bingham's torch in 9/11 memorials and scholarship fundraising come from his once "irreconcilable" worlds of sports jocks and fraternity brothers, on the one hand, and gay friends and partners on the other. Such a feat of amity is a true hero's legacy.

The Bear Movement has inspired a number of organizations, events, publications, and resources dedicated to affirming and eroticizing large-bodied, hirsute gay men, known as Bears.

"Coming out" is the revelation or acknowledgment that one is a member of a sexual minority, a process that is at once personal and social and often political.

San Francisco has enjoyed a reputation as a "gay mecca" since World War II.

While sports, at least on the major competitive level, may be the final closet for gay men, there have nevertheless been a number of gay male elite athletes.

Award-winning rock singer and songwriter Melissa Etheridge has not only managed to carve out a spectacularly successful career as a popular mainstream performer, but she has also become a lesbian icon and activist for gay and lesbian causes.

Candace Gingrich, the half-sister of former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich, serves as a spokesperson and Senior Youth Outreach Manager for the Human Rights Campaign.

Diane Whipple, the coach of the women's lacrosse team at Saint Mary's College in California, was killed in a dog-mauling; the response of her partner helped establish the right of same-sex partners to equal treatment with heterosexuals.