Associated Press, “Mychal Judge shows us that you can be gay and holy.”“Father Judge’s selflessness is a reminder of the sanctity that the church often overlooks in LGBTQ people,” he said. “Heaven is filled with LGBTQ people.
All the church has to do is start to recognize this.”A Brooklyn native and the son of Irish immigrants, Judge joined the priesthood in 1961.
His work led him to helping marginalized communities after he recovered from alcoholism in Alcoholics Anonymous. He founded a Catholic HIV ministry, one of the first of its kind, that regularly visited hospitals to assist patients and their families.
In 1992, he joined the New York City Fire Department.Judge was not publicly out; only a few of his friends were aware of his.