Does anyone else find this rather, uh, distasteful coming today?
Her achievements as a woman and as a scientist and as an astronaut and as a brilliant, principled investigator of NASA's screw-ups will always stand, and vastly outshine any flaws. But the truth remains: she had a chance to expand people's horizons and young lesbians' hope and self-esteem, and she chose not to.
She was the absent heroine.
When did it become de rigeur for every prominent gay man or woman in this country to out themselves? When did it become a Betrayal of The Cause for one to insist on personal privacy, free from judgment? Or is this just as case of tribalism---the unconscious desire to claim persons of distinction as "one of our own"? Perhaps it would be wise to ponder the influence that the male-dominated profession in which she worked may have exerted on her, and/or the fact that the culture at a place like NASA probably wasn't too terribly gay-friendly during the time she spent there. Also too, for some reason our astronauts have tended to be rather retiring types who generally shun the spotlight and keep a low public profile after their careers in space exploration are over. I can't think of any of them who ever called much attention to themselves outside a spacecraft besides John Glenn and Frank Borman, and maybe Buzz Aldrin.
In other words, there are numerous reasons why some people choose to stay in the closet, and not all of the closeted necessarily do it out of shame, self-loathing, or a desire to conceal. In Sally Ride's case, it may just have been that she was simply very guarded about her privacy, which frankly doesn't make her much different than someone like Neil Armstrong.
I guess what I am trying to say is this: While it's certainly true that the closet can be a type of prison for some gay people, for others it's a safe haven, and however they choose to live their lives, the choice is theirs to make and it should be respected, particularly if we are discussing a respectable individual who lived an exemplary life.
As far as I'm concerned, the only people who deserve to be outed are the Ted Haggards of our world. Everyone else should be free to come out as they like, or not, and remain free from snotty scoldings like this one.
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Vitelius