Dr. Sally Ride broke a huge barrier in 1983, when she became the first American woman in space. After a second trip into space a year later, she embarked on a long and distinguished career in physics and education, directing the California Space Institute, writing six science books for children, and later setting up her own company “to make science and engineering cool again.” Her special joy was reaching out to young girls with dreams of doing what girls weren’t supposed to do.
And now she is pushing against one more barrier, even after her death. Newspapers and blogs were full of the news of her passing, and most of them incorporated the official obituary released by her company, Sally Ride Science. Very few of them took any notice of the last sentence of the obituary, which quietly acknowledged that Dr. Ride was gay.
In addition to Tam O’Shaughnessy, her…
View original post 366 more words
Out of Nowhere 