I never knew Sally was ‘family’, said a gay friend. Not many did, apparently (via):
Sally Ride, who died [Monday] after a 17-month battle with pancreatic cancer, was the first female U.S. astronaut in space and became friends with Tam O’Shaugnessy at the age of 12. It was not until today, however — nearly 50 years after meeting — that their 27-year romantic relationship was made public.
The pioneering scientist was, a statement from Sally Ride Science announced, survived by “Tam O’Shaughnessy, her partner of 27 years.”
With that simple statement — listed alongside her mother, Joyce; her sister, Bear; her niece, Caitlin and nephew, Whitney — Ride came out.
Bear Ride, talking with BuzzFeed, said today, “We consider Tam a member of the family.”…
“I hope it makes it easier for kids growing up gay that they know that another one of their heroes was like them,” she added….
Of Sally Ride’s sexual orientation, Bear Ride said, “Sally didn’t use labels. Sally had a very fundamental sense of privacy, it was just her nature, because we’re Norwegians, through and through.”
I’m only a member of the Norwegian-American community by marriage, but since the two most prominent Norwegian-Americans up till now have been Karl Rove and Grover Norquist, I am definitely going to claim Dr. Ride for our team, as well.
And I thought this comment from the NYMag post was perfect:
I like to think of it as a great “fsck you” to the religious right: An intelligent gay woman came closer to the heavens than bigots like Pat Robertson or Bill Donohue ever will.
Raven
My people are from Stevanger.
Balboa
God has a way of dropping the best anecdotes at life’s party. It’s his/her way of saying, “Pat Robertson, eat your peas.’
Ride, Sally, ride.
Balboa
God has a way of dropping the best anecdotes at life’s party. It’s his/her way of saying, “Pat Robertson, eat your peas.’
Ride, Sally, ride.
gbear
No one should have this name in a serious discussion of homosexuality. Really.
West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.)
I wonder if we’ll ever lose our obsession with whether someone is bedding a man or woman… probably not any time soon.
the Conster
I kept looking at Tam O’Shaughnessy and kept seeing Tam O’Shanter. That’s the only thing I found to be interesting about that name, which being from Massachusetts proves that I’m a godless heathen who doesn’t fear teh girl sex. It’s just such a stupid waste of energy to give a shit what a bunch of dumb fucks think about anything, especially when you’re Sally Fucking Ride, Queen of Awesome.
Marcellus Shale, Public Dick
hasn’t this topic already been covered? or is this another balloon juice inside joke? i get so confused sometimes.
maven
Sally and Sherman.
Movin’ on Up.
Raven
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick: Maybe you are just stupid and not confused?
jrg
She deserves props for standing up to pancreatic cancer for 17 months. That shit is brutal.
She was clearly a brave woman.
JWL
Lest We Forget: The Mormon Church poured a ton of money into California a few years ago in opposition of marriage. Gay marriage, if you must nitpick. But when all is said and done, it was simply a vote to endorse marriage between consenting adults. And ONLY two, I might add. And the SOB’s prevailed, too.
trollhattan
I protest! The most bestest Norwegian-Americans evar are Ivar Haglund and Ome Daiber. Karl and Grover would have to stand on their mothers’ shoulders to kiss their Norwegian bums.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivar_Haglund
http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/notes/comm/daiber-matie.html
(I took a mountaineering class from Ome, a force of nature that man.)
gbear
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.):
I volunteered to help with data entry for MN United, the group that’s working to defeat the (anti) marriage ammendment that’s going to be on the ballot this fall. The pile of pledge cards that they collected during MN Pride at the end of June was in the thousands so last night we were still entering information from that haul. I see bumperstickers and yard signs against the ammendment all over the Twin Cities and even saw one on Hwy 61 way north of Duluth. A lot of people in MN are interested in defeating the people who obsess over who sleeps with whom.
JGabriel
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gbear:
I LOL’d. Wins thread so far.
.
trollhattan
@JWL:
Yup. And then fought in court to keep the donations anonymous. Top state outside California donating to Prop 8: Utah. But I’m sure they’re also the top state in the nation, financially, so it makes sense.
Anne Laurie
@Raven: My mother-in-law emigrated from Nordfjord as a small child. There’s certainly some (red-headed) Viking genes in my lineage, but like Garrison Keillor, I’m just another Celt mocking from the southern reaches…
Narcissus
The Sally Ride would be a good name for a spaceship.
If we were the sort of race that produced spaceships, instead of the next season of Survivor.
JGabriel
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Narcissus:
I like it better than Enterprise.
Cacti
Despite being an astronaut with a PhD in physics, talibangelicals will now call Sally Ride a poor role model for young girls.
What a shame.
some guy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEM1Q-iA50M
pre-teen Al-Qaida recruit raises his weapon against the Assad regime in Aleppo. this is like the good old days in the 1980s, when we worked withe Saudi’s and Qatari’s to kill communists in Afghanistan. everything old is new again.
now that US taxpayers are once again allied with the jihadists in Al-Qaida I wonder what other ExcellentAdventures will be in store for us?
Anne Laurie
@West of the Rockies (formerly Frank W.): I think there’s a part of our primate brains that’s always gonna wonder, “So, if we did meet up somewheres, what would my chances be, theoretically?”
Joe
I’m sure Knute Rockne should count for something.
beergoggles
I was reading the wikipedia editing comments for it that gawker had highlighted and I had a wtf smdh moment. Apparently her orientation is still a matter of some debate.
JGabriel
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Cacti:
Of course.
Among the Talibangelicals, the ideal female role model would be a Statue of the Unknown Woman Who Obeyed Her Husband.
.
NonyNony
@some guy:
Note that she was already a poor role model for young girls to them because she was a woman who had a PhD in physics and was an astronaut. Those jobs are either men’s work or Satan’s folly, depending on just how far over the deep end they happen to be.
Libby Spencer
Teary.
I watched Sally take that first ride on the teevee machine. She inspired me to be brave and take chances in my own life. Her courage at the end leaves me in awe.
Anne Laurie
@Marcellus Shale, Public Dick:
Well, maybe I didn’t feel qualified to add anything to the approximately six dozen posts on Joe Paterno that’ve already appeared here.
NonyNony
@beergoggles:
Jumpin’ Jeebus on a Pogostick – people are stupid.
Cacti
@Anne Laurie:
Don’t you mock Joe Paterno.
It just proves you’re a least coast elitist who hates Real America.
Anoniminous
Huh? Never heard of Torsten Bunde Veblen?
gbear
@JGabriel: It’s unreal.
Bonus quote from Bear:
srv
fsck should not be used in lieu of fuck as it has a particular techinical connotation.
Mike in NC
A genuine American hero. Will our shitty do-nothing Congress honor her? Not likely.
jl
Some notable US Norwegians (the Rove and Norquist slur required some response)
Rick Steves
Thorstein Veblen
James Cagney
Melanie Griffith
Robert Mitchum
Peggy Lee
Matt Groening
Charles M. Schulz
Earl Warren
Ernest Lawrence
List of Norwegian Americans
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Norwegian_Americans
I did not know Jimmy Cagney was half Norwegian. See, let those damned Irish in on anything and they take over.
Edit: So Sally Ride can make the list even more distinguished. RIP Sally Ride.
Adolphus
Here are other famous Norwegian Americans that will hopefully cleanse the pallet a little:
James Arness
Peter Graves
Humphrey Bogart
Gypsy Rose Lee
Lorenzo Lamas (half, of course)
Kristen Wiig
The Andrews Sisters
Beck
Joni Mitchell
Iggy Pop
Grace Slick
Peter Tork
Lance Armstrong
Knute Rockne (mentioned above)
Charles Schultz
Earl Warren
Bob Fosse
Earl Bakken
Elliott Ness
And my three favorites:
Pat Paulsen
Thorstein Veblen
Matt Groening
So cheer the heck up. There is a lot of win in this list.
Redshift
@srv:
I’m pretty sure an old joke on that from back in the dim early days of the Internet is the entire reason why some people use fsck as a substitute.
tybee
@trollhattan:
Thor Heyerdahl
i always loved Kon Tiki. :)
gnomedad
@srv:
I assumed it was a nerdy bowdlerization.
jl
@Adolphus: And I thought I was being obsessive.
All I got to say is, Rove and Norquist aside, a lot of commies and libs in there. I don’t know if those Norgies are a healthy influence on our society.
Edit: but thanks, I was too lazy to note down some good ones.
Jager
My great, great grandfather immigrated from Norway at 14, was a swamper in his Uncle’s railroad bar in St. Paul. Left at 18 to break sod in North Dakota. Farmed, marrried a local Norwegian girl and had one son who produced 7 grandchildren for him, 2 boys and 5 girls. All the girls went to college and graduated, the boys farmed. He had a real Norski name, Gullick, Gullick Gullickson. From all accounts he was a true viking of a man!
Enjoy the cosmos Sally, you deserve a great trip!
NotMax
Norwegian-Americans?
Matt Groening. Charles Schulz.
Lots and lots of ’em.
Bogart and also Cagney. Jean Arthur. Hubert Humphrey. Sonja Henie. Pat Paulsen. Eliot Ness.
Also John Ashcroft and Michele Bachmann.
ZenHousecat
@jrg: Truth–I’m a medical oncologist, and yes, it is.
Steve
Surprised no one has mentioned the most famous Norwegian-American of all, Marilyn Monroe.
I also have a soft spot for Walter Mondale in this category, but for different reasons.
maven
HOTDISH.
Most famous norwegian; fur sure.
PurpleGirl
Fred Clark (Slacktivist) wrote a memorial for an aunt who recently died. He too included something about her partner of x years, who was a woman. It was a very good memorial of a warm, brave woman who lived as she wanted to. And the matter of fact way he mentioned her partner was wonderful to read.
ETA: ‘She Was a Class Act”
http://www.patheos.com/blogs/slacktivist/page/2/
PurpleGirl
Another Norwegian-American of note, author and professor
Ole Edvart Rølvaag.
He wrote Giants in the Earth, about the Norwegian immigrant experience in the Dakotas. IIRC, he wrote the novel in Norwegian and it was then translated into English.
Jay S
@maven: Uff da, I think you mean infamous.
ETA Unless you were referring to Marilyn.
CW in LA
@Steve: I cast my very first vote for Walter Mondale. And a lot of good it did, but I was still proud to do so.
I agree that, if our country ever builds another space ship, it would be a very great thing if it were called the Sally Ride. The Dr. Sally Ride would be even better.
InternetDragons
I love the positive recognition that is being shown toward her relationship with her longtime partner, and I’ll happily continue reading comments like that wherever I can find them.
But the thing that is upsetting me is the fact that her life partner isn’t eligible for the standard retirement survivor annuity offered to the spouses of federal employees.
Tam deserves better.
BethanyAnne
@CW in LA: I dunno, maybe we should name it The Hot Dish :)
Spatula
It’s really sad to me that Sally Ride, obviously a courageous, accomplished, and intelligent woman, never found the strength to conquer her shame and come out of the closet as gay and openly acknowledge her primary relationship.
That is just really…sad
GG
@Anne Laurie: That was gonna be the gist of my reply.
Mr.S, as usual up with the damn sun, told me Sally Ride had died, and that her partner was a woman. We both acknowledged that we hadn’t had a clue about her personal life, and then he said, “27 years.” That’s all. We both just hurt for them both.
Mnemosyne
@Spatula:
She also didn’t publicly announce that she had cancer, which only goes to show that she was never able to overcome the shame of having cancer.
Or, you know, it shows that she was a private person who didn’t discuss anything in public except her work. Strange as it seems, not everyone who becomes famous wants to bare their entire lives for the public, particularly people who become famous through science.
If you wanted an astronaut who would tell you every detail about her personal life, you should have had NASA recruit Snooki instead of a scientist.
David Koch
Holy Cow! This is shocking.
I can’t believe her partner was Irish.
Steve
@Mnemosyne: You pretty much insulted everyone’s intelligence with that comment. She was in a committed relationship for 27 years. This is basic biographical information – which is why it’s in her obituary – not something that would normally be regarded as secret. At least not for a straight person.
Chris
My people are from Duluth, via Bodo, far far up the Norwegian coast. A grandma’s cousin was a gold medal speed skating hero for Norge. There are lots of great Norwegian Americans more prominent than the two shit heels mentioned above.
Also, I’m not sure Karl Rove isn’t playing on the Wide Stance team anyway.
bob h
I’m Norwegian-American, too. My aunt was a lesbian but it was absolutely forbidden to mention it.
As for shit-heels, we have to acknowledge la Bachmann. Norquist is actually Swedish-American.
Mary
Reminds me of a scene from Mad Men:
Arthur: You’re so profoundly sad.
Betty: No. It’s just my people are Nordic.
fraught
@Steve: MM in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes when someone asked her if she was American: “Yes, except on my mother and father’s side. They’re Irish.”
Mjaum
@tybee:
Thor Heyerdahl was not american, just norwegian.
Same goes for Sonja Henie, who was mentioned by someone else.
(Yes, I am nitpicking. It’s a norwegian trait.) ;)
ThresherK
There’s a school named after Ride, isn’t there?
Is the barometer of batcrap ticking (sorry for the mixed metaphor) on how soon some Valuista demands it be changed because of her orientation?