Last Ride Out
On Monday July 23, astronaut Sally Ride died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. She was the first American woman in space and went into space twice, once in 1983 and once in 1984. She was also appointed to two investigations of space shuttle accidents, namely the Challenger and the Columbia. She helped design a robot arm that was used in shuttle missions and walked in space. She was held up as a role-model for much of Generation X about how women can do anything men can. While she did run and donate to efforts to encourage girls in science, she never held herself up as a role-model or larger than life figure. She was always focused on being the best astronaut possible, she was, by every account great at it. She was, unlike so many others, very private about her personal life but very open about her professional life. She wanted all kids to study science, she publicly endorsed a researcher who found problems with the space shuttle when every other astronaut turned their backs on him. Sadly, this report was not just well written, it was prophetic. She had to endure the dumb questions like "Do you cry when things go wrong at work?" and other questions men didn't have to answer. But she carried on in her own way, never backing down but never screaming about how unfair it was. She had no agenda but to do the best job possible and get kids more interested in science. With all of that, it came as a big shock to many that she was gay.
She only came out as gay after she died by own wishes. She wrote her own obituary, presumably when she knew she was dying of pancreatic cancer. Her family knew about her sexuality and was, by all accounts, happy with her and her spouse Tam O'Shaughnessy. Her sister Bear is also gay and an ordained Presbyterian minister, so this is a pretty accepting family all things told. Dr. Ride, however, did not want her life to be about how she was a lesbian and how she was first gay person in space, but about good of an astronaut she was. She worked her tail off to get her Masters and Ph.D. and answered an open ad in a newspaper to apply for NASA. She had to put up with a lot of stereotypes concerning women in math, mostly negative, and put up with all kinds of patronizing questions and concerns. Even after she became an astronaut, she had to put up with not being known as a great astronaut, but being known as a female astronaut, which all but automatically meant she was not going to be judged on her own merits. There would always those who would think she was only hired because she was a woman and those who thought everything she did was great because she was a woman. Dr. Ride, however, took it all in great stride and continued to make her own great strides in being an astronaut. She was the only person to serve on both boards of inquiry for the Columbia and Challenger disasters, which means she was respected in the field by people without political agenda.
That in and of itself one hell of an accomplishment. The space program in the US started in the 1950s and 1960s with the most straight-arrow people they could find among military pilots and aviators. The criteria were often so strict and random that this meant leaving out many otherwise qualified candidates, like Chuck Yeager. They were looking only for military, college-educated test pilots with clean records. They then ran these men through all kinds of physical and mental examinations and trials to find the best people they could. Of course, some of these tests included things that we would find nuts these days, like the press asking them if they attend church regularly or how their wives and children felt about their careers. They were asked about how often they masturbate, they were asked all kinds of crazy things about their personal lives that would make the average politicians blush and generally put through a ringer since they didn't know what to expect out of space travel. They picked the most physically fit guys they could who could deal with all kinds of crazy stuff and the unexpected. It would turn out a lot of these guys were cheating on their wives, occasionally going off the reservation and generally not the larger than life heroes the media and the government were trying to make them out to be. However, these guys were also the elite of the elite, and they knew it. So, when someone can prove to them that an up and comer can be their equal, it's a real something. And for men of that generation, the fact she was a woman whom they could respect, it was a bigger deal than it is now. Again, she didn't make breaking barriers her agenda, she made science and being the best astronaut she could her agenda.
A lot of conservatives and other people are always on about the "gay agenda", which can feel like heavy handed forced tolerance at times. There are times when it feels like being tolerant to gay people has a sharp edge to it that can feel forced. For example, some people have started a campaign to figure out which historical figures may have been gay, which is good if there is good evidence for it. However, sometimes there is not good evidence, people just kind of purport it and any questioning of bad historical analysis. It can feel like a bad agenda to many, so the backlash has started to question any person who is mentioned as gay. Dr. Ride chose not to make that her agenda. She made her agenda science and trying to get kids to learn more about science and make it interesting. She was just a kick-ass astronaut who was doing her best to promote more science. Is she getting a better response from conservatives about being a private lesbian? Is she getting more respect for just doing her job and not shoving her "gay agenda" down the throats of children? Nope, most conservative bloggers are oddly silent on the matter and amateur outfits like Free Republic have comments like "You peel back all this women’s lib stuff and it’s basically women that hate men (and themselves)." and many of "Who cares?" with a couple of responses like "People care. I care. Christians care about influences on their children. I am not alone." While it is nice that a lot of the comments are "who cares, she was an astronaut", many of the who cares comments were "people shouldn't talk about that, and it's pathetic when whom you sleep with trumps real accomplishments". Which of course proves that her sexuality should be mentioned as a part of her, in the sense that she is survived by her spouse (which is mentioned in almost everyone's obituary), and commented on only to say "holy crap, I didn't know about that". The only influence she had on a lot of kids was encouraging learn about science and possibly deep-sea diving, nothing about muff diving. Of course, many of the conservative people talking about how her accomplishments should matter more than her sexuality are still doing her a disservice.
Her widow cannot claim survivor benefits simply because Sally Ride was a gay woman. I saw no comments saying how this astronaut should be allowed to have her spouse get survivor benefits. I saw no comments about how this brave widow, who had been with Dr. Ride for 27 years, is getting screwed by the government. Hell, not even a "Obama hates brave astronauts" rant. If any other person of Dr. Ride's accomplishments had been denied survivor benefits to next of kin, there would be a much louder hue and cry from the same people saying we should ignore her sexuality and focus on her great achievements. As a person, they are focusing on the right things: what she did as an astronaut, but they are still willing to treat her as second-class because her sexual orientation trumps her achievements in terms of whether or not she could be married, whether or not she could get many tax deductions for being married and whether or not her partner gets her flag when she is buried. While Dr. Ride never made that her public fight, and she never made an issue of her sexuality, others have made that an issue while denying it is an issue. She did everything the conservative agenda could hope a prominent lesbian could ever hope to do, and in exchange they are denying both her sexuality and the benefits she worked hard to earn. She worked harder than most of the critics out there to earn benefits and privileges they would deny her, then deny it should even be an issue.
If they really wanted to make sure her sexuality was never an issue, all rights would be honored.
So it is written, so do I see it.
She only came out as gay after she died by own wishes. She wrote her own obituary, presumably when she knew she was dying of pancreatic cancer. Her family knew about her sexuality and was, by all accounts, happy with her and her spouse Tam O'Shaughnessy. Her sister Bear is also gay and an ordained Presbyterian minister, so this is a pretty accepting family all things told. Dr. Ride, however, did not want her life to be about how she was a lesbian and how she was first gay person in space, but about good of an astronaut she was. She worked her tail off to get her Masters and Ph.D. and answered an open ad in a newspaper to apply for NASA. She had to put up with a lot of stereotypes concerning women in math, mostly negative, and put up with all kinds of patronizing questions and concerns. Even after she became an astronaut, she had to put up with not being known as a great astronaut, but being known as a female astronaut, which all but automatically meant she was not going to be judged on her own merits. There would always those who would think she was only hired because she was a woman and those who thought everything she did was great because she was a woman. Dr. Ride, however, took it all in great stride and continued to make her own great strides in being an astronaut. She was the only person to serve on both boards of inquiry for the Columbia and Challenger disasters, which means she was respected in the field by people without political agenda.
That in and of itself one hell of an accomplishment. The space program in the US started in the 1950s and 1960s with the most straight-arrow people they could find among military pilots and aviators. The criteria were often so strict and random that this meant leaving out many otherwise qualified candidates, like Chuck Yeager. They were looking only for military, college-educated test pilots with clean records. They then ran these men through all kinds of physical and mental examinations and trials to find the best people they could. Of course, some of these tests included things that we would find nuts these days, like the press asking them if they attend church regularly or how their wives and children felt about their careers. They were asked about how often they masturbate, they were asked all kinds of crazy things about their personal lives that would make the average politicians blush and generally put through a ringer since they didn't know what to expect out of space travel. They picked the most physically fit guys they could who could deal with all kinds of crazy stuff and the unexpected. It would turn out a lot of these guys were cheating on their wives, occasionally going off the reservation and generally not the larger than life heroes the media and the government were trying to make them out to be. However, these guys were also the elite of the elite, and they knew it. So, when someone can prove to them that an up and comer can be their equal, it's a real something. And for men of that generation, the fact she was a woman whom they could respect, it was a bigger deal than it is now. Again, she didn't make breaking barriers her agenda, she made science and being the best astronaut she could her agenda.
A lot of conservatives and other people are always on about the "gay agenda", which can feel like heavy handed forced tolerance at times. There are times when it feels like being tolerant to gay people has a sharp edge to it that can feel forced. For example, some people have started a campaign to figure out which historical figures may have been gay, which is good if there is good evidence for it. However, sometimes there is not good evidence, people just kind of purport it and any questioning of bad historical analysis. It can feel like a bad agenda to many, so the backlash has started to question any person who is mentioned as gay. Dr. Ride chose not to make that her agenda. She made her agenda science and trying to get kids to learn more about science and make it interesting. She was just a kick-ass astronaut who was doing her best to promote more science. Is she getting a better response from conservatives about being a private lesbian? Is she getting more respect for just doing her job and not shoving her "gay agenda" down the throats of children? Nope, most conservative bloggers are oddly silent on the matter and amateur outfits like Free Republic have comments like "You peel back all this women’s lib stuff and it’s basically women that hate men (and themselves)." and many of "Who cares?" with a couple of responses like "People care. I care. Christians care about influences on their children. I am not alone." While it is nice that a lot of the comments are "who cares, she was an astronaut", many of the who cares comments were "people shouldn't talk about that, and it's pathetic when whom you sleep with trumps real accomplishments". Which of course proves that her sexuality should be mentioned as a part of her, in the sense that she is survived by her spouse (which is mentioned in almost everyone's obituary), and commented on only to say "holy crap, I didn't know about that". The only influence she had on a lot of kids was encouraging learn about science and possibly deep-sea diving, nothing about muff diving. Of course, many of the conservative people talking about how her accomplishments should matter more than her sexuality are still doing her a disservice.
Her widow cannot claim survivor benefits simply because Sally Ride was a gay woman. I saw no comments saying how this astronaut should be allowed to have her spouse get survivor benefits. I saw no comments about how this brave widow, who had been with Dr. Ride for 27 years, is getting screwed by the government. Hell, not even a "Obama hates brave astronauts" rant. If any other person of Dr. Ride's accomplishments had been denied survivor benefits to next of kin, there would be a much louder hue and cry from the same people saying we should ignore her sexuality and focus on her great achievements. As a person, they are focusing on the right things: what she did as an astronaut, but they are still willing to treat her as second-class because her sexual orientation trumps her achievements in terms of whether or not she could be married, whether or not she could get many tax deductions for being married and whether or not her partner gets her flag when she is buried. While Dr. Ride never made that her public fight, and she never made an issue of her sexuality, others have made that an issue while denying it is an issue. She did everything the conservative agenda could hope a prominent lesbian could ever hope to do, and in exchange they are denying both her sexuality and the benefits she worked hard to earn. She worked harder than most of the critics out there to earn benefits and privileges they would deny her, then deny it should even be an issue.
If they really wanted to make sure her sexuality was never an issue, all rights would be honored.
So it is written, so do I see it.