Editing Mychal Judge (section)

==Personal life==
Following his death, a few of Judge's friends and associates revealed that Judge was [[gay]].<ref>{{cite news | url=http://www.tampabaycoalition.com/files/1003FatherMikeBW.htm | title=Tributes keep flowing for NYC Fire Dept. chaplain Mychal Judge, one of those who died in the World Trade Center attacks | publisher=Bay Windows | date=2001-09-27 | last=Cassels | first=Peter | access-date=2004-04-16 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040426124201/http://www.tampabaycoalition.com/files/1003FatherMikeBW.htm | archive-date=2004-04-26 }}</ref> According to Fire Department Commissioner [[Thomas Von Essen]]: "I actually knew about his homosexuality when I was in the [[Uniformed Firefighters Association]]. I kept the secret, but then he told me when I became commissioner five years ago. He and I often laughed about it, because we knew how difficult it would have been for the other firemen to accept it as easily as I had. I just thought he was a phenomenal, warm, sincere man, and the fact that he was gay just had nothing to do with anything."<ref>{{cite journal|journal=[[New York (magazine)|New York]]|title=The Firemen's Friar|url=http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/sept11/features/5372/index2.html|date=November 12, 2001|last=Senior|first=Jennifer|access-date=2006-09-14|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060326222030/http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/sept11/features/5372/index2.html|archive-date=March 26, 2006}}</ref>

Judge developed a romantic relationship with a Filipino nurse named Al Alvarado in the last year of his life, which Judge documented in his diaries. The two often did not see each other for months because of Judge's work as a firefighter.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/nyregion/10about.html|title=Missions of Hate and Love, With 9/11 at the Center|last=Dwyer|first=Jim|date=2008-09-09|work=The New York Times|access-date=2018-04-22|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331|archive-date=2018-04-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180423033640/https://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/10/nyregion/10about.html|url-status=live}}</ref>

The revelations about his [[sexual orientation]] were not without controversy. Dennis Lynch, a lawyer, wrote an article about Judge that appeared on the website catholic.org. Lynch said that Judge was not gay and that any attempt to define him as gay was due to "homosexual activists" who wanted to "attack the Catholic Church" and turn the priest into a "[[gay icon|homosexual icon]]".<ref>Lynch, Dennis (June 26, 2002). [http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=19 "A September 11th Hijacking"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050505121819/http://www.catholic.org/featured/headline.php?ID=19 |date=2005-05-05 }}. Catholic Online.</ref> Others refuted Lynch with evidence that Judge did in fact identify himself as gay, both to others and in his personal journals.<ref>{{harvp|Daly|2008|pp=86, 301–302}}</ref>

Judge was a long-term member of [[DignityUSA|Dignity]], a Catholic [[LGBT]] activist organization that advocates for change in the Catholic Church's teaching on homosexuality.<ref name="Newman"/><ref>[http://www.dignityusa.org/faq.html#1 "What is Dignity?"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070404151759/http://www.dignityusa.org/faq.html |date=2007-04-04 }} [[DignityUSA]].</ref> On October 1, 1986, the [[Roman Catholic Church|Vatican's]] [[Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith]] issued an [[encyclical]], ''On the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons'',<ref>[http://www.dignityusa.org/1986doctrine/ratzinger.html "Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061007150141/http://dignityusa.org/1986doctrine/ratzinger.html |date=2006-10-07 }}. DignityUSA.</ref> which declared homosexuality to be a "strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil". In response, many bishops, including [[John O'Connor (cardinal)|Cardinal John O'Connor]], banned Dignity from diocesan churches under their control. Judge then welcomed Dignity's AIDS ministry to the [[St. Francis of Assisi Church (Manhattan)|Church of St. Francis of Assisi]], which is under the control of the Franciscan friars, thereby partially circumventing the cardinal's ban of Dignity.<ref>{{harvp|Ford|2002|pp=119–120}}</ref>

Judge disagreed with official [[Catholic Church and homosexuality|Catholic teaching regarding homosexuality]].<ref>{{harvp|Ford|2002|p=182}}</ref> Judge often asked, "Is there so much love in the world that we can afford to discriminate against any kind of love?"<ref>{{harvp|Ford|2002|p=124}}</ref>