Oh, and Oler is wrong about federal benefits and same sex couples as well. The Defense of Marriage Act was passed in 1996, under President Clinton, not Bush. Last February Obama moved to grant same sex couples certain federal benefits under executive order.>>

Whittington. DOMA is aproduct of the religious right wing of the GOP I think it is a Bob Barr thing…If there was not the right wing of the GOP there would be no issue of same sex partners and federal benefits.

Clinton did sign it, but DOMA is a product of the right wing of the GOP which is trying to defend it as it works its way through the courts.

Sorry Mark, you and Rand are part of a party of not only boobs but intolerants. What did Sarah Palin’s grandkid call her Aunt? Goofy RGO

I am neither a “boob” or “of the far right.” You seem to be a deranged lunatic on the subject, though.

There are apparently no times that you are not more so.

Due to legislation Federal benefits are denied to same sex partners…the GOP congress under Bush made sure of this.

What legislation would that be?

There was no plan for a mission to Mars under Bush. Where do you come up with this kind of ignorance?

“Being the proud father of a daughter, I look forward to the day where it doesn’t matter that someone who went to space was female, or for that matter what their sexual orientation was, their religion (if any) was, or what their skin color or ethnicity were.

Apparently I’ll have to wait a while…”

Maybe not. Firsts are always benchmarked and Ride’s was big for American society. Tereshkova flew 20 yers earlier for the Soviets in ’62; their society having a decidedly different roles for women. More recently, the PRC flew a mom. We’ve got female fighter pilots, airline pilots and after the U.S. whoopla in ’95. Collins piloted a shuttle and commanded in ’99 and ’05. Routine stuff by then. Ride’s life before, during and especially after NASA is one any daughter can admire or source to inspire.

Oler, this is utterly irrelevant to the legacy of Dr. Ride. A legacy that flourshed for nearly a quarter century after she left the NASA payroll.

“What should of course be obvious was that had Dr. Ride mentioned or even been noted in terms of her sexual preferences…she would not have lasted five minutes in the astronaut corp even with her enormous talents.
As Michael Cassutt, the author of “Who’s Who in Space,” is quoted on Space.com as saying that such an announcement would be a “career-wrecker.”

Speculation. Hindsight. And utterly irrelevant. Obsessive on your part as well. Cassutt knows very well the many things that could be a ‘career wrecker’ – with more astronauts than shuttle seats to ride at NASA in that era. And, of course, changes in Ride’s personal life- marriage, divorece, partnersgip- occured while at NASA and as she left in ’87. Cassutt knows that back in the day, a simple divorce was a career problem in the AO. You’re just using this as a screen to hype this strained political spin of yours.

NASA was very aware of Lisa Nowak’s ‘sexual preferences’ along w/t others in the astronaut office she worked and played with and she lasted a lot longer than five minutes.- until she blew a gasket. =eyeroll= Your obsession with Dr. Ride’s personal life is creepy, Oler, and your attempts to paint it with some self-serving political POV is low, even for you– particularly just a day or so after her passing.

Sure, in 1978, when her class was selected, had the NASA management of that era become aware in the recruitment process, there’s a chance she’d not have been selected as an astronaut– but that kind of discrimination is quite illegal as you well know; it’s just as likely that she’d have been given a ground assignment and never flown- ‘transferred to Tulsa’ as they say in the oil biz– and certainly not selected and subjected to the PR spotlight of scrutiny as the first U.S. woman in space. Except she was. And she did just fine. Billie Jean King was outted in ’81 and still playe tennis. Context of the times is everything.

Leave this alone, Oler. It’s beneath you.