Sally Ride, the first woman in space, dies at 61, comes out posthumously as lesbian

[SuperMillionaire]

Michelangelo Signorile: Sally Ride, American Hero: This Is What a Lesbian Looks Like

Sally Ride, the first female astronaut to reach space, has died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 61. In addition, following her death, she has posthumously come out as a lesbian.

Ride became the first female astronaut in space in 1983 when she boarded the space shuttle orbiter Challenger (which exploded three years later). Despite being a lesbian, she was previously married to a man, but after divorcing, she mated with a female partner, but kept it a secret until now, after she had already died. Thus, she was also the first recorded gay astronaut.

Ride was a great role model for everyone, but especially women and girls, and inspired many to strive to reach their goals. She paved the way for other female astronauts to enter space, and now that she has posthumously come out as a lesbian, she will also hopefully inspire other LGBT astronauts to come out as well.

[Jinx]

Gay austronaut, lol.

[Tigmafuzz]

...What does her being lesbian have to do with her accomplishments?

[Hollycat]

...What does her being lesbian have to do with her accomplishments?

Inorite?

[Bunny]

She was not the first woman in space. She was the first American woman. The first woman was Russian.

[Quindiana Jones]

If you're not American, you don't mean trout.

[DMKA]

Ugh, I hate how the whole article is about her assumed lesbianism, which has zero to do with going into space or anything else she did.

I think the second to last comment on that article says it right:

this is why she Chose to hide her orientation for 27 years....because she didnt want to be known as the "gay astronaut" and she didnt want to be the poster child for gay rights...she just wanted to be left alone about her personal life and focus on bringing science to the world. RIP lovely lady

[nik0tine]

she mated with a female partner

[NeoCracker]

she mated with a female partner

I'm glad I was not the only one who found that line amusing. Lo

I do think it's a good thing that it is known she was gay for the same reason it was good to note Obama was Black.

There is still a lot of anti-gay emotion in the country, and it's nice to have some good examples of gays doing great things to show that they are capable of just as much as the rest of us.

I disagree with all the focus being put on that though.

Also,

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

But she didn't come out to after death, so She wasn't Openly gay.

[Shlup]

Just because she wasn't declaring her sexuality in every article and interview doesn't mean she was in any closet. Some people just want to live their lives without a label stitched to their sleeve.

(P.S. I tired to add "American" to the thread title a couple of days ago, but it's already at its character limit.)

[Bunny]

"Sally Ride, first American woman in space, dies at 61."

[Jinx]

Ride, Sally, Ride


bum bum bum

[Del Murder]

Wait a minute... wait just a darn minute. Sally Ride, THE Sally Ride, was a... a... a woman? I am shocked. Maybe one day we will evolve as a society to not allow 'these people' into OUR man-space.

[krissy]

thankfully they still don't have voting rights for space presidents and space popes

[Madame Adequate]

Whoa whoa there, I think you guys are missing something here. I think you need to know about the game Sp'ombies [it stands for Space Zombies] and I think you need to realize that we now have words like sp'president [space president] and sp'pope [space pope]!

And sp'lesbian! [space lesbian]