Gay astronauts

They chose not to come out, Tam later explained, as they were concerned they wouldn’t be able to raise the corporate sponsorship money needed if the companies knew they were a couple. We highlight the contributions of LGBTQ+ members currently working in science and space, while also providing grants to promising LGBTQ+ students currently pursuing professions in space-related fields.

The first black man, followed later by the first black woman, gained greater headlines for their missions than other flights doing the same operational tasks. Considered security risks, and open to blackmail because of personal lives considered illegal for their very existence, they were actively investigated by the FBI and civil service, who routinely “purged” employees under suspicion.

Multiple recipients of this award have been scientists in the space industry, including the award's most recent winner, Jane Rigby.

Jane Rigby is a lesbian and astrophysicist who was Deputy Operations Project Scientist at the James Webb Space Telescope, and whose team at NASA worked collecting data from the Keck and Magellan Observatories, as well as the Hubble Space Telescope.

She was the first active duty female naval officer to fly in space. Whether a scientist or astronaut, most people have an academic background or, in the latter case, a military one. It was something we became used to dealing with, both for public appearances and at the company offices.

While the Lavender Scare was a US event, it reflects an anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment felt across almost all countries worldwide.

I hadn’t known Sally Ride was gay until she died and it came out then, even though I’d dated her for a while decades earlier.”

Unlike the announcement of the first woman in space, first black astronaut, and other positive steps in spacefarer diversity, the story of gay astronauts so far has come out in three different, more complex ways.

With someone as famous as Sally, there are always people who stalk, who send strange messages, and who otherwise try to get close. Not a woman astronaut. The couple was already divorcing, and disagreements over intertwined finances sadly spilled over into orbit. Many repressive laws existed until then in states such as Texas, home of NASA’s Johnson Space Center, where the astronauts are based.

As chief of the astronaut office for a number of years, he had a lot of say in who was selected as an astronaut.

“Texas was not a very welcoming environment for gay people,” he tells me. Sending the first person into space, carrying out the first spacewalk, being the first to reach the moon, and the first to land on the moon — these were headline-grabbing moments that elevated the prestige of the country responsible.

These are firsts someone could claim, and be an inspirational role model for many people. Sally was already a first, and because of her high-profile position she was spending a huge amount of energy post-NASA inspiring girls to seek out STEM careers. Over 5,000 federal employees were fired during these purges, a hunt that did not end until after the Apollo program was over.

Not all astronauts are civilian employees, however. She’d had same-gender relationships since the age of 20, long before she applied to become an astronaut. Even long hair was out of the question, as well as beards.