Floating freely on the flight deck, Sally Ride communicates with ground controllers in Houston during her STS-7 mission in June 1983.
Image: NASA
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Three hundred and thirty American men and women have served as astronauts since the start of NASA's human spaceflight program. Only one is publicly known to have been gay or bisexual — Sally Ride — and she kept it private until her death, yesterday (July 23), when her obituary on the Sally Ride Science organization's website stated that Ride was survived by Tam O'Shaughnessy, her "partner of 27 years."
As the first American woman in space and a scientist, Ride served as a role model for generations of young girls. Now, she'll serve as a role model for LGBT youth as well, said her sister, Bear Ride. "I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay that they know that another one of their heroes was like them," Bear Ride, who identifies as gay, told Buzzfeed yesterday.
Gay rights advocates say Sally Ride's addition to the ranks of LGBT role models will make a tremendous impact. "Role models are incredibly valuable for everyone, but I think especially for LGBT youth, who may be born into a family where they don't have an LGBT role model. It is so important for them to look out into the world and see they could be welcome in that world," Stuart Gaffney, media director at Marriage Equality USA, told SPACE.com. "Sally Ride will be that for them now."
Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin concurred, telling Buzzfeed, "The fact that Sally Ride was a lesbian will further help round out Americans' understanding of the contributions of LGBT Americans to our country." [Astronaut Sally Ride: In Her Own Words]
Ride's decision to keep her sexual orientation private reflects her very private nature, sources said. But the lack of even one openly gay or lesbian astronaut in the history of American spaceflight may reflect the culture at the NASA astronaut office. Although NASA does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation, Michael Cassutt, author of five books and hundreds of articles about human spaceflight, said coming out would until recently have been "a career-wrecker" for an astronaut. "Not for any formal reason, but in the same way that any medical issue or even some kind of notoriety has been an astronaut career-wrecker," Cassutt told SPACE.com.
"Any issue that detracts from the mission is or has been the kind of thing an astronaut wants to avoid. It isn't NASA politics; it is NASA politics as practiced at the astronaut office," Cassutt said, adding that the office has often resembled a "military squadron."
A NASA spokesman told SPACE.com that astronauts decide for themselves what to reveal about their private lives.
"Certainly we try to be open with their professional activities and beyond that what they reveal privately is pretty much up to them," said the spokesman, who asked not to be named. Still, the fact remains that no astronauts have ever come out as gay or lesbian, while many astronauts include mention of their husbands, wives or children on their NASA official biography pages. (As of today, Ride's NASA bio page was updated to mention that she is survived by her mother, with no mention of her partner.)
Cassutt said even though he suspects there are or have been some other gay or lesbian astronauts, and in spite of the progress made on LGBT issues, "I don't expect anyone in the current corps to be 'out' any time soon, assuming anyone is gay."
The implication is that even in 2012, a same-sex orientation could still earn an astronaut unwanted notoriety that would detract from a mission. Robert Pearlman, space historian and founding editor of collectSPACE.com (a SPACE.com partner site), said the choice to shield one's sexuality "unfortunately cannot yet be labeled 'behind the times.' While there are a great many more people who are openly gay today, we are not yet to a point of universal acceptance," he noted.
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20 Comments
Add CommentWhy do they need to be openly gay? Why don't they need to be openly blue eyed? Or openly left handed? They're freaking human beings, of course some of them are gay, just like some of them are blue eyed and some of them are left handed. I don't think we need people to be "out" about their heterosexuality or their homosexuality, I think what we need is for the sensationalist media circus to stop publishing idiotic stuff from genital obsessed perverts who claim that homosexuality is "wrong".
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf those groups spewed that being blue-eyed is "wrong", everyone would ignore them/laugh at them. They *have* in the past spewed that being left-handed is "wrong" and we know where that went.
We don't need reporting on which astronaut's partners have the same genitals as the astronaut. We don't need homosexuals to "out" themselves. What we need is a rational press who outs the groups driving the homophobia as what they are: disgusting perverts who are so obsessed with human genitals and the sex lives of strangers that they want to pass laws specifying which genitals are allowed to interact in what specific ways.
That's not just an opinion, it's a fact. Do you doubt that claim? Well, the next time you talk to or interview someone who espouses the view that "marriage is between a man and woman" or "homosexuality is wrong", ask them a simple question: If someone is born 46,xy then who can they marry or have sex with?
They won't be able to answer you because love, devotion and caring have no bearing on who can marry or who can have sex, their judgement is based entirely on the morphology of the genitals of the people in question.
Sally Ride was a hero and a pioneer, period. Only some freakishly sex obsessed pervert give a rat's butt about whether her partner had a penis or not.
I agree completely with dphaynes. Why I do we need to know or care what the sexual preferences of our astronauts (or anyone else) happen to be? This is an issue that shouldn't matter to anyone beyond the team itself.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe you missed the point. It is not about the fact we NEED to know. It is all about the fact that heterosexual astronauts mostly included the information in their own bios about their wifes and kids while the only known homosexual astronaut avoid doing any statement about the fact she is having a same sex partner as other astronauts are having an other sex partner. This is the point. And this indicates doing such a statement, not because it is mandatory to satisfy the public need for juicy information, but because it is simply natural to include in a bio your partner in life is something that can cause you some prejudice in your professional career as an astronaut. This is a strong indication that homosexuality isn't accepted for an astronaut and this is the problem and the whole point.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt is sad that what a person does in the bedroom and what shape their plumbing is matters so much to people. That being said, right now having openly gay people is important for several reasons: it helps show the world that we're not all sex crazed maniacs who spend all our time flouncing around in high heels (hiking boots for the lesbians), that we're exactly like everyone else.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMore importantly, we in the gay community need positive role models. Society as a whole continually tells us that we're wrong/evil/deficient . . . . I don't know if most people can understand what it is like to grow up gay and see nothing but negative stereotypes, the impact that has on self esteem. It's no surprise to me that a lot of us in the gay community behave the way we do: extravagantly out, obnoxious drag queens, highly promiscuous flamers. When you're told that you're not normal, you say: "Fine, I really WON'T be normal". He is going to show all the young people who are dealing with their sexuality that they are normal people and that the hate mongers are wrong.
By having well known, highly visible personages who also happen to be gay helps us become main-stream and slowly it becomes no big deal. It increases acceptance (so much more important than simple tolerance). I was beyond thrilled when Anderson Cooper came out (besides the fact that he is gorgeous) because he is highly respected and lives a normal lifestyle. It's going to be very difficult for the hate mongers to label him as a deviant and as someone undeserving of the same rights as anyone else.
One day a person's same sex partner will be no bigger deal than having a partner of the opposite gender, but we still have a long way to go.
Did you even read the article? It doesn't sound like it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Sally Ride was a hero and a pioneer, period. Only some freakishly sex obsessed pervert give a rat's butt about whether her partner had a penis or not."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe'd guess her heterosexual marriage included at least one, not that anybody cares.
If something is not normal, it will never be accepted as normal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI don't know why, but it's not ok.
Why aren't there science magazines thst stick to science instead of crawling under rocks desperate for stories
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@bops: Not normal? Because it's a small percentage of the population? Down that make red heads not normal? Or does normal mean that it's not natural? In which case, take a long look around. Many animals have same-sex coupling. And yes, humans are animals, albeit advanced ones - although animals don't discriminate against those same sex couplings like we manage to.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt one point it was not normal for blacks and whites to marry. In many places it was illegal; in most others it would get you attacked. I'm glad that normal is an ever-changing point of view.
I think that you may want to take a long, hard look at yourself. If you don't know why something isn't okay, I think you need to find out why. If you're so out of touch with yourself, who knows what is lurking in there!
As one who is openly heterosexual, I submit sex is a private matter. When I was younger, I admit, I sometimes did perform in open places, but the hormones do not moan, as they once did. I am now what they call "more seasoned," as are the astronauts, and do not jump to the tune of hormonal bells. It is nobody's business what goes on, behind closed doors, so long as no one gets hurt, and I would expect any astronaut not to have the need to wear their sexuality on their sleeve.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe incessant concern with homosexuality is mostly attached to the overtly religious. Their archaic book which they literally try to follow is to blame. Hatred, bias, and murder abound within this terrible book that so many Americans want to live by.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI believe as others you miss the point. Sure it isn't anybody else business. However, when the bios include the heterosexual partner and kids, that is public statement in regard of the sex orientation. The point being the homosexual astronauts, if any, don't publish the name of their same sex partners because someone in NASA will believe it is his business to segregate on that information or even the fact it was publicly made available for the crowd.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYeah, I read the article. The whole reason the article had to be written and the note "dyke" scribbled in all the mainstream media pieces is because the genital obsessed puerile freaks control the discussion every single day.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf the perverts were unable to print sick and twisted things like "homosexuality is wrong" every day without being challenged (and/or ridiculed) by "journalists" then Sally Ride's bio would have been indistinguishable from the other astronauts.
The solution isn't for people to be "out" about their sexual orientation, it's for the media to be held accountable (i.e. ridiculed) for publishing the insane babble.
Think about it. Could a black astronaut in 1965 have put a photo of his white wife on his bio page? Was the solution for Black Americans to come "out" about their lack of prejudice? The real change in this country didn't happen until the media stopped treating racist spewage as if it were rational or respectable.
If some white guy went on TV today and said "Those uppity negroes shouldn't be allowed to marry whites, it's unnatural!", everyone would recognize him for what he is: an irrational and race obsessed freak who should be in therapy, not appearing on the evening news.
The same should be true for anyone who gets up and says "Those uppity fags/dykes shouldn't be allowed to marry men/women, it's unnatural!"
The bio pages will take care of themselves when the media is held accountable for publishing the sick statements of perverts and calling it "fair and balanced" reporting.
Brrrp. Wrong answer. It *is* normal, It's completely natural, there are numerous examples in many species of mammals and birds, and most of educated and secular humans accept it as perfectly normal.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt's only in countries where fundamentalist religions fester that homosexuality is considered "wrong".
You have no logic and no evidence yet you demand that your opinion is reality for everyone else? You imagine that it's wrong, therefore it's really wrong? Really?
Isn't that the sort of "logic" of every hate group that has ever existed?
"I don't know why, but it's not ok for blacks to sit at the whites only lunch counter"
"I don't know why, but it's not ok to be a Jew"
"I don't know why, but it's not ok for women to vote"
If you can't cite a single reason why it should be considered wrong then you have no grounds for demanding that it must be so, and you sure as hell would have no business imposing laws on others simply because you imagined that it was wrong.
An old sci-fi tale spoke about a long trip where a pair of gays was in the crew. The place of their meetings begun to smell like a gym, perhaps because of popper's use, and also the old US army statement for trying to ban gays from having a position there was that the presence of these people reduced the combat morale of the units. Probably, as the current spaceships don't allow any kind of sexual activity, and heterosexual activities are banned because of lack of data about what could happen with the fetus if a woman become pregnant during the space mission, a possibility exists that homosexual members of space crews have past just unnoticed, and the subject lacks any interest, as this kind of things should probably not be more important than the football team crew members like, but a female B52 atomic bomber captain pilot was expelled from her job because it was known she was engaged in an adulterous relationship. Not many years before people started denouncing religious organizations when it was discovered that some of its members molested children, a gay monitor won a demand against being banned from working in a youth's summer camp, as the parents of camp inmates had requested; he was readmitted to work after the court decision. As you can see, there is precedents for any kind of opinion on the subject.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisShe is survived by Tam O'Shaughnessy, it doesn't sound like a coming out, on the contrary her work for science was far better known that her homosexuality. Her true cause was women in science, and her girlfirend's cause too. Coming out would had blurred that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPersonally, I think that one’s sexual preference should be kept private. It’s disclosure has no bearing on the success of the mission.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe only people that want it to be brought out into the open for comments are the gays themselves. My question to them is, “Why?”
Being disclosed or not has what bearing and purpose?
Get over it. You are just another brick in the wall, nothing special until you make it special.
It is not about the shape of genitalia but the purpose of them that matters. Genitalia are there for the purpose of procreation, a fundamental prerequisite of life as any scientist will recognize. If there is the possibility of a couples' genitalia being able to continue the life of their species then that is who they might consider as being their partner in bed etc. If procreation is not on their agenda or ability then what is it, besides trying to emulate what a heterosexual couple can do? If ones chromosomes lead one to like someone with similar genitalia go ahead and follow your heart. But don't expect marriage to make such a couple able to reproduce. Life is more than a political stand where one can wave a marriage license and pretend to be equal to a heterosexual couple.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYes, we try to live by that "archaic book." To the extent that we succeed, our rates of unwed motherhood, venereal disease and such are as close to zero as such things ever get. Our families are stable, and our children grow up right. But that's no surprise (Ex. 15:26).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSally Ride must have had some terrific genes that should have been passed on to offspring, but that didn't happen because a gay or lesbian couple can't have biological offspring together. Substitute "maladaptive" for "not normal" and it starts to make sense.
This is one of the most profoundly agenda driven articles that has ever been written. Let me answer your question
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1. Because Less than 2% of the population is gay
2. Of that 2% less than .01 publically come out
There is no need for a heterosexual or homosexual to announce their preference. Why in the world is it necessary to tell the world your sexuality. It appears to me only those that are very insecure in their sexuality have a need to do this. Who really cares!