5 ms·

First lesbian in space, apparently. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/sally-ride-first-american-woman-female-partner-_n_1696537.html http://www.huffingt

First lesbian in space, apparently. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/sally-ride-first-american-woman-female-partner-_n_1696537.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/23/sally-ride-first-am... Unfortunate she felt she had to keep it to herself her whole life. At the time she was applying, it might have disqualified her, security clearances weren't given since it was felt gays were exposed to blackmail. Plus Reagan era officials might not have viewed it as great PR. [edit] Also a shame her partner of 27 years doesn't get the privileges of a spouse.

samstave 14y ago
Its so fucking hilarious and sad that "gays were exposed to blackmail" thus not given clearance when the highest positions in many intelligence agencies are held by gays. Hoover, (hitlers SS lead - failing on name), and many others... not to mention the latest cabal in the US agencies who i will not name at this time. This world is so fucking broken.
- xanadohnt 14y ago
  Turing too.
- keefe 14y ago
  maybe the highest positions in intelligence agencies should be held by good liars, not social activists...
- Mithrandir 14y ago
  >(hitlers SS lead - failing on name) Did you mean Ernst Röhm? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm) He wasn't SS, he was part of Sturmabteilung.
Simucal 14y ago
Would they only deny you a security clearance if your sexual orientation was a secret? It seems like it would be hard to blackmail someone who was publicly gay.
- runjake 14y ago
  At the time she likely got her clearance, it would've been a ding.
  - excuse-me 14y ago
    Even weirder is why she would need a security clearance. I hate to break it to you - but the Rooskies already know about space !
    - CamperBob2 14y ago
      Certain things like inertial guidance systems were (and probably still are) highly classified for a good reason: ours were great, and theirs sucked.
      - excuse-me 14y ago
        And how much did she know about them? The design of the fan blades of the Rolls Royce jet engines on an A380 are a closely guarded secret and yet we allow people to fly on it without a security clearance - even people from Seattle, even Boeing employees (although they do have to sit outside!) One of the real problems with the Shuttle is/was the cold war paranoia of Nasa. I worked on Hubble and 20years afterwards I still (as a Brit citizen) wasn't allowed inside JPL for an anniversary celebration
        archgoon 14y ago
        > And how much did she know about them? Possibly quite a bit. Astronauts aboard the Apollo 13 had to make various repairs to different subsystems, so I would not be surprised if later Astronauts received fairly detailed information about how the entire system worked as part of their training, 'just in case'. At which point, you really don't want to have to worry about which pieces of information are safe and which are classified, or who is allowed to talk to who about what. Much easier and safer to just ensure you can give away as much info as possible to everyone involved.
ams6110 14y ago
Also possibly a shame that her husband had to endure a divorce, though a big caveat that at the time she may not have admitted her orientation even to herself, and/or they may have divorced for unrelated reasons.
- SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago
  Divorce is always a shame, but ... don't be so quick to blame the divorce on her "orientation". Not all people are attracted exclusively to one gender. All we know about Sally Ride is that "Sally didn't use labels. Sally had a very fundamental sense of privacy" http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-astronaut-sally-ride-comes-out http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-astrona... We know that she had a male parter. We know she had a female partner. We don't know why the first partnership failed. And we don't really need to.

samstave 14y ago

Its so fucking hilarious and sad that "gays were exposed to blackmail" thus not given clearance when the highest positions in many intelligence agencies are held by gays. Hoover, (hitlers SS lead - failing on name), and many others... not to mention the latest cabal in the US agencies who i will not name at this time. This world is so fucking broken.

xanadohnt 14y ago
Turing too.
keefe 14y ago
maybe the highest positions in intelligence agencies should be held by good liars, not social activists...
Mithrandir 14y ago
>(hitlers SS lead - failing on name) Did you mean Ernst Röhm? (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_R%C3%B6hm) He wasn't SS, he was part of Sturmabteilung.

Simucal 14y ago

Would they only deny you a security clearance if your sexual orientation was a secret? It seems like it would be hard to blackmail someone who was publicly gay.

runjake 14y ago
At the time she likely got her clearance, it would've been a ding.
- excuse-me 14y ago
  Even weirder is why she would need a security clearance. I hate to break it to you - but the Rooskies already know about space !
  - CamperBob2 14y ago
    Certain things like inertial guidance systems were (and probably still are) highly classified for a good reason: ours were great, and theirs sucked.
    - excuse-me 14y ago
      And how much did she know about them? The design of the fan blades of the Rolls Royce jet engines on an A380 are a closely guarded secret and yet we allow people to fly on it without a security clearance - even people from Seattle, even Boeing employees (although they do have to sit outside!) One of the real problems with the Shuttle is/was the cold war paranoia of Nasa. I worked on Hubble and 20years afterwards I still (as a Brit citizen) wasn't allowed inside JPL for an anniversary celebration
      - archgoon 14y ago
        > And how much did she know about them? Possibly quite a bit. Astronauts aboard the Apollo 13 had to make various repairs to different subsystems, so I would not be surprised if later Astronauts received fairly detailed information about how the entire system worked as part of their training, 'just in case'. At which point, you really don't want to have to worry about which pieces of information are safe and which are classified, or who is allowed to talk to who about what. Much easier and safer to just ensure you can give away as much info as possible to everyone involved.

ams6110 14y ago

Also possibly a shame that her husband had to endure a divorce, though a big caveat that at the time she may not have admitted her orientation even to herself, and/or they may have divorced for unrelated reasons.

SideburnsOfDoom 14y ago
Divorce is always a shame, but ... don't be so quick to blame the divorce on her "orientation". Not all people are attracted exclusively to one gender. All we know about Sally Ride is that "Sally didn't use labels. Sally had a very fundamental sense of privacy" http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-astronaut-sally-ride-comes-out http://www.buzzfeed.com/chrisgeidner/first-female-us-astrona... We know that she had a male parter. We know she had a female partner. We don't know why the first partnership failed. And we don't really need to.