The Astronaut Bride

It's a fairly simple fact, but one that has received little attention and merits much more: the first American woman in space, the late Sally Ride, was gay. Her 1982 marriage is covered in the endnote to the Times obituary with an a strange kind of terseness:

Dr. Ride is survived by her partner of 27 years, Tam O’Shaughnessy; her mother, Joyce; and her sister, Ms. Scott, who is known as Bear. (Dr. O’Shaughnessy is chief operating officer of Dr. Ride’s company.)

Brushing over the fact like that has led some to suspect that the relationship was taken less seriously by the mainstream media because it was homosexual. Andrew Sullivan had a bone to pick with the newspaper over its inability to confidently confront the fact in the main body of the obituary, and a number of others expressed a similar sentiment. Sullivan wrote:

Now talk about a buried lede! The only thing preventing the NYT from writing an honest obit is homophobia. They may not realize it; they may not mean it; but it is absolutely clear from the obit that Ride's sexual orientation was obviously central to her life. And her "partner" (ghastly word) and their relationship is recorded only perfunctorily. The NYT does not routinely only mention someone's spouse in the survivors section. When you have lived with someone for 27 years, some account of that relationship is surely central to that person's life.

While we're on the subject, 'partner' really is a ghastly word, isn't it? I mean: to anyone who thinks that the semantics of marriage don't matter — that 'civil union' is a perfectly acceptable substitute — should consider how dismissive that sounds. How condescending. The word itself implies that those to whom it is ascribed belong to second class of relationship, and a second class of marriage — and surely, then, a second class of love altogether.

I wouldn't go nearly as far as Sullivan has in calling out the NYT on homophobia. And I certainly wouldn't want them to parade her sexuality around as though being the first lesbian in space is somehow an achievement. But it does make me grind my teeth to see a basic fact so blatantly and carelessly ignored.

(Image via Engadget)