![]() Ride had been very private her whole life, partially because of the culture of NASA and fear that revealing her orientation might overshadow her career, and she never discussed her relationship with O'Shaughnessy in the press. However, when Ride died in 2012 it became public through her obituary that she had a female partner, Tam O'Shaughnessy, for the last 27 years of her life. Ride was married (from 1982 to 1987) to fellow astronaut Steve Hawley. She used her fame from her time as an astronaut to promote science education, founding Sally Ride Science to encourage kids to go into STEM fields and writing several books for kids about space travel and the solar system. After two missions to space on the Challenger shuttle, during which she operated the robotic arm to set satellites into orbit, Ride left NASA. She was a physicist by training and was hired to be in the first class of NASA astronauts to ever include women. Ride was the first American woman to go to space. If you are looking for how to be a good ally, here's a good article about that. If you are especially looking for info about LGBTQ+ people of color in STEM, this profile and this article are good places to start. If you’re looking for more resources, you can look at the Out to Innovate site for LGBTQ+ people in STEM. If you are more interested in learning about current LGBTQ+ scientists, take a look at 500 Queer scientists, the Twitter account PrideInSTEM or this article about LGBTQ+ people in STEM. This list is more on the historical side and includes mostly (though not entirely) people who are no longer working scientists. So I've included in this list people who were public about their identity and/or orientation as well as people who are thought to have been LGBTQ+. It's important to learn about the contributions LGBTQ+ people have long been making. But I also know that the good that comes from the visibility of those historical figures is significant. Many LGBTQ+ people in history couldn't come out publicly (and the truth is that many today still can't), and it feels a little intrusive to guess based on a letter or some ambiguous anecdote. I often feel uncomfortable with these lists, especially when sexual orientation and/or gender identity is speculative. To celebrate Pride Month, I wanted to share a bit about LGBTQ+ scientists of the past. It was an inflection point in the gay liberation movement. ![]() ![]() June is Pride Month, which commemorates the Stonewall riots of 1969, when patrons of a gay bar, The Stonewall Inn, in New York City fought back against a police raid. ![]()
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