The War over Sally Ride

I was considering writing an obituary for astronaut Sally Ride, when the war over the facts of her personal life broke out.

Was she gay? Apparently so. Interestingly, one of my old friends told me his gaydar went off when he saw her interviewed on TV back in the 80s, when she first went up in space (and was still married to astronaut Steve Hawley). I have heard this "gaydar" comment several times since. I had no idea if this was true or not, so I went to Wikipedia, like I always do.

And wouldn't you know? That's where the war is.

Wikipedia does not see fit to mention that Ride had a 27-year relationship with a woman, Tam O'Shaughnessy, whom she called her partner. Glenn Greenwald tweeted his disapproval of Wikipedia's omission, and got goofy (and thoroughly bigoted) replies, such as "not sure why it matters?"

Not sure why it matters? Does the marriage of a heterosexual person matter, if one is seeking factual biographical information? I think we all agree that it does. In fact, even heterosexual AFFAIRS (not sanctified by legal marriage) are covered in Wikipedia biographies. But since being gay is considered BAD, it is widely regarded as an INSULT if you include this fact about her. Even if its accurate.

So, we have the (possibly) first gay astronaut, and most people do not know this about her. The official accounts are leaving out her grieving widow, Tam. Imagine if this was a heterosexual astronaut 'hero'--and they refused to acknowledge their widow?

Impossible to contemplate. It would simply never happen.

The GAWKER's article about this homophobic fiasco includes a series of comments left on the Wikipedia 'history' page, which would be hilarious if they didn't seek to erase 27 years of two women's lives. For example:

There's another logical gap: according to this bio, Tam O'Shaughnessy was Sally Ride's partner of 27 years, i.e. since 1985. But the article says that "in 1983 [Ride] became the first American woman, the first lesbian [...] to enter space", and it doesn't logically follow that she was a lesbian in 1983.

Do you believe this stuff? ANYTHING to avoid the facts, that the first US woman in space was a lesbian.

Last Autumn, I wrote about this phenomenon (the emphatic denial of gay sexuality in obituaries) after the death of film producer Ismail Merchant. The same hysterical, ridiculous denials surfaced at that time.

Why can't the homophobes at least ACCEPT PEOPLE IN DEATH? It's like they can't let their hatred go, even for a second. They refuse to grant any gay person respect. And if they should by chance actually admire the individual in question (as so many admired both Merchant and Ride), then they MUST deny that they were gay. Because they simply CANNOT ADMIRE a self-professed gay person.

There really is no other explanation for this behavior.

And with that, I will end with my concluding comment in my post about Ismail Merchant:

Again, we see how gay people are disappeared by the culture at large, as heterosexuality, even openly illicit heterosexuality, is heralded.

Unfortunately, it's still an accurate observation.

~*~

EDIT--Wikipedia has added the following paragraph to Ride's obit, due to popular demand: After death, her obituary revealed that Ride's partner was Tam E. O'Shaughnessy, a female professor emerita of school psychology at San Diego State University and a childhood friend who met Ride when both were aspiring tennis players. O'Shaughnessy became a science teacher and writer and, later, the chief operating officer and executive vice president of Ride's company, Sally Ride Science. She co-authored several books with Ride. The 27-year relationship was revealed by the company and confirmed by Ride's sister who also stated that Ride chose to keep her personal life private including her sickness and treatments.

More than I expected.

Anonymous man does not have sex with Christine O'Donnell

Wow, what an election year... is all I can manage to say.

I wake up and I see Christine O'Donnell in a Ladybug costume, all over the internet. Happy Halloween, yall!

Apparently paid good money by THE GAWKER, an intrepid (but anonymous) fellow writes that he partied with Christine on Halloween and provides ladybug photos. She's drunk!

But... well... that's it.

Wait, what?

Christine and I got cozy on the couch and popped open another beer.

Things got physical on the couch pretty quickly. It wasn't long before we'd moved from the living room to my bed.

I won't get into the nitty gritty details of what happened between the sheets that evening. But I will say that it wasn't half as exciting as I'd been hoping it would be. Christine was a decent kisser, but as soon as soon as her clothes came off and she was naked in my bed, Christine informed me that she was a virgin.

"You've got to be kidding," I said. She didn't explain at the time that she was a "born-again virgin." She made it seem like she'd never had sex in her life, which seemed pretty improbable for a woman her age. And she made it clear that she was planning on staying a virgin that night. But there were signs that she wasn't very experienced sexually. When her underwear came off, I immediately noticed that the waxing trend had completely passed her by.

Obviously, that was a big turnoff, and I quickly lost interest.

Yeeeuck, what an asshole. Can I say I'm very glad Christine didn't give it up for this guy?

He also calls her a cougar, if you can believe it.

One hates to defend a piece of shit like O'Donnell, but this is misogynist and just plain AWFUL. I'm sure we could hear juicier stories about, ohhh, ANY of the male senators. Why is Christine more interesting? Well, she's attractive and unmarried... and female.

But what gets me: Although O'Donnell's campaign is comparing this to Will Folks and his Nikki Haley-SUV tales, it simply is not analogous. WILL FOLKS IS NOT ANONYMOUS and is ready and waiting to be sued, which he won't be. This "anonymous" character can't be sued.

Oh wait, yes he can. The Smoking Gun has tracked him down: Brad Kurisko, 28, is a district executive with a Boy Scouts council in the Philadelphia area.

Boy Scouts? Oh, Jesus H. Christ.

Yes, the Boy Scouts! And as you might expect, Brad's a little upset about that getting around, and claims his roommate stole his Boy Scout uniform:

In a series of phone conversations this afternoon, [Kurisko] acknowledged that “Anonymous” had worn his Boy Scouts outfit, but claimed that he was unaware that the uniform would be seen in photos published with the O’Donnell story. “I have to go home and kick his ass,” Kurisko said of his buddy, whom he declined to identify. He added, “I had no idea that any pictures existed.”

Asked if he was involved in the preparation or brokering of the Gawker story, Kurisko declined comment. While denying that he was “Anonymous,” Kurisko refused to identify the story’s author, claiming that TSG was “asking me to throw someone under the bus.” He also refused to answer a question about whether he received money in connection with the story (Gawker's editor told a Yahoo reporter that the site paid in the "low four figures" for the O'Donnell story).

While Kurisko refused to out “Anonymous,” some online activity this evening may point to the author’s identity. Shortly after his last phone conversation with a TSG reporter, a single name disappeared from Kurisko's list of Facebook friends.

The man with whom electronic ties were abruptly cut is Dustin Dominiak, a 28-year-old buddy who attended Albion College with Kurisko. Records show that Dominiak has previously shared a Philadelphia address with Kurisko. One online posting reports that Dominiak, a Michigan native, has worked as an auditor at the Federal Reserve in Philadelphia. [...]

Soon after Dominiak's name vanished from Kurisko's list of friends, Dominiak’s entire Facebook page (which listed 356 friends) was suddenly deactivated. Perhaps this was Dominiak’s attempt to achieve a greater degree of anonymity.

UPDATE: In a phone interview tonight, a besieged Kurisko told TSG that Dominiak is the man pictured with O’Donnell in the Gawker photos. He said that while Dominiak had borrowed his Boy Scouts uniform, he was unaware of the existence of photos of his roommate with O’Donnell.

Kurisko said that he had no idea that Dominiak was preparing the Gawker piece and only became aware of its publication after speaking with a TSG reporter late this afternoon. He added that he is now concerned about “preserving my job” in light of media scrutiny, which has included reporters attempting to contact members of his family. These contacts, Kurisko added, were triggered by a Village Voice report that erroneously identified him as “Anonymous.”

Dominiak is “well aware of the situation,” said Kurisko, who added, "I was not aware this was going down."

Stole his Boy Scout uniform to party with Christine! This gets better and better.

The Gawker has been attacked by everyone for this story, even liberals from Salon, and this little journalistic stunt appears to have BOMBED OUT big time. They have even earned themselves a brand new Twitter hashtag: #GAWKERFail.

And what do you think? Get rid of her at any cost? Or is this just too much?