5 ms·

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

by 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.
  - jcurbo 14y ago
    At the time she was flying on the Shuttle, the USAF was involved in the overall project and it was being used to lift military payloads into orbit, including some classified ones. The USAF stopped using the Shuttle after the Challenger accident.
tzs 14y ago
NOTE: I am not saying any of the following are good reasons. Just relaying reasons I've read about before as to why being gay was such a red flag, even if you were out. 1. One concern could be that even if you are out, you might have partners who are not. The threat of outing those partners might be used to gain some leverage over you. 2. Gay relationships were frowned upon by society. There was none of the societal support that encourages and aides straight people in forming monogamous couples and settle down. The only option for gays who did not want to remain celibate in many cases was to resort to picking up strangers in sex clubs, or dealing with hustlers. That's not the kind of thing that security people like to see, regardless of whether you are straight or gay.
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- dredmorbius 14y ago
  On your #2: quite. The kids here especially may not appreciate how far gay acceptance has come even in just the past 20 years. The progress from the Stonewall Riots (1969, NY City) to today is pretty staggering.
  - tallanvor 14y ago
    I completely agree that the progress over the last few decades has accelerated dramatically. Unfortunately the number of suicides we still see in the GLBT community, especially among teens, shows that we still have a long way to go. --Mind you I'm primarily talking about the US, here... The situation in many middle eastern and African countries shows just how far the world as a whole still needs to come.

by 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.
- jcurbo 14y ago
  At the time she was flying on the Shuttle, the USAF was involved in the overall project and it was being used to lift military payloads into orbit, including some classified ones. The USAF stopped using the Shuttle after the Challenger accident.

tzs 14y ago

NOTE: I am not saying any of the following are good reasons. Just relaying reasons I've read about before as to why being gay was such a red flag, even if you were out. 1. One concern could be that even if you are out, you might have partners who are not. The threat of outing those partners might be used to gain some leverage over you. 2. Gay relationships were frowned upon by society. There was none of the societal support that encourages and aides straight people in forming monogamous couples and settle down. The only option for gays who did not want to remain celibate in many cases was to resort to picking up strangers in sex clubs, or dealing with hustlers. That's not the kind of thing that security people like to see, regardless of whether you are straight or gay.

deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
dredmorbius 14y ago
On your #2: quite. The kids here especially may not appreciate how far gay acceptance has come even in just the past 20 years. The progress from the Stonewall Riots (1969, NY City) to today is pretty staggering.
- tallanvor 14y ago
  I completely agree that the progress over the last few decades has accelerated dramatically. Unfortunately the number of suicides we still see in the GLBT community, especially among teens, shows that we still have a long way to go. --Mind you I'm primarily talking about the US, here... The situation in many middle eastern and African countries shows just how far the world as a whole still needs to come.