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Michelangelo Signorile smacks down the same-sex scandal-ridden Florida Lt. Governor Jennifer Carroll, who thinks she knows what a lesbian looks like:
In what is perhaps a stellar example of the new trend in coming out quietly, Sally Ride, the first American woman to rocket into outer space, came out as a lesbian in her obituary, a day after her tragic death due to pancreatic cancer. She now makes history not only as the first American woman in space, aboard the space shuttle Challenger, but as the first openly gay or bisexual person (while the obituary referred to a relationship with a woman for 27 years, it’s possible, since Ride was once married to man, that she identified as bisexual or without a label) to fly in space as well.
…Yes, Lt. Governor Carroll, you are right. With your bigotry and cowardice, you are are not what a lesbian looks like.
This is what a lesbian looks like: Sally Ride: physicist; author of seven science books for children; member of the space shuttle Challenger crew; member of the President’s Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology; director of the California Science Institute; inductee into the National Women’s Hall of Fame, the California Hall of Fame, the Aviation Hall of Fame, and the Astronaut Hall of Fame; recipient of the Jefferson Award for Public Service, the von Braun Award, the Lindbergh Eagle, the NCAA’s Theodore Roosevelt Award, and the NASA Space Flight Medal (twice).”
10 Comments
What a shame that her partner of 27 years will not be able to receive any benefits which I am sure that Sally would want her to have.. Thank you to all those homophobic Republicans for this atrocity!!
Actually thank Bubba Clinton for this tragedy. DOMA set all this into motion. Yes, the Republicans are execrable, but a DEMOCRAT codified this “atrocity” into law. DOMA was the engine that fed the trend of states modifying their constitutions to prevent gay marriage. Bill Clinton does not get a pass because he has a (D) after his name. And Obama is in no hurry to change things.
What an accomplished woman she has been.
She’s riding some higher light now.
Ride, Salley, Ride.
(Why is it that so many of your posts make me tear up?)
Thanks for your continued work, Pam. (That’s my sister’s name too, so you had me at Pam.)
Sally Ride was an extraordinary person and she makes us all proud. RIP
i feel happy and proud, just looking at sally.don’t you?
She was such a great hero for so many millions of Americans.
I remember how excited and happy we were when she flew the space shuttle.
Thinking back on Sally Ride and her accomplishments, if you compare those years to our present situation it shows how much we have declined as a nation in our commitment to advancing humanity and traveling to the moon and mars. We need leaders who can rekindle the commitment of our country to accomplish great projects of science and exploration. It is our human destiny to explore and know the galaxy.
Very well said, I totally agree.
Thank you
“This is what a lesbian looks like . . . ”
Nice work, Signorile!
Yes. We need leaders, not trend-watchers.
Sally Ride was openly gay? What does it mean to be openly gay? Has the meaning changed in the last thirty years?
I agree that Sally Ride was an outstanding gay American and is a role model for all Americans.
But it doesn’t seem accurate to me to refer to her as the “the first openly gay or bisexual person… to fly in space”. I appreciate the difference between the world we live in today and the one in which Ms. Ride achieved her place in history as the first female U.S. Astronaut. And while I understand her decision to remain closeted because to do otherwise in that time could have certainly precluded her from achieving her goals, I do not think you get to wear the title “openly gay” while only coming out posthumously.
Or perhaps I need to rethink my definition of “openly gay” for this new century? Are you “openly gay” if you’re out to friends and family but closeted at work? I’ve always considered “openly gay” to mean out everywhere not just where it’s comfortable and safe. Have we advanced so far that being “out” is no longer a revolutionary act that can incur negative consequences as well as positive?
The balancing of the positive verses the negative consequences of living openly has historically defined the Catch 22 for most members of the LGBT community. Some courageously chose to be out despite any and all costs while others were forced to make the more pragmatic decision to remain closeted in order to be able to live, work, and advance humanity from within a system hostile to the truth of who they are.
Ms. Ride’s decision to remain closeted while alive in no way diminishes her contributions to the space program or to her efforts to advance science education and to encourage young women to pursue lives outside of roles traditionally chosen for them. But to claim that she was openly gay or bisexual seems to me to deny the hard choices she was forced to make in order to gain access to the opportunities that her talents and abilities equipped her to pursue and in which she excelled.