🏳️🌈TODAY’S PRIDE HERO🏳️🌈
Sally Ride
(May 26, 1951 – July 23, 2012)
Sally Ride was an American physicist & astronaut. On June 18, 1983, she became the first American woman in space as part of the space shuttle Challenger mission.
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Sally was born and grew up in CA. She obtained her PhD from Stanford in Physics.
Ride was one of 8,000 people who answered an ad in the Stanford student newspaper seeking female applicants for the space program. She was 1 of 35 women chosen by NASA in 1978.
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After traveling to space during the Challenger mission in 1983 and 1984, Sally became the inspiration for several generations of girls,(including yours, truly) to follow their science and technology dreams, an area that had been long deemed "boys only."
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Sally was very private about her personal life & didn’t enjoy the spotlight. She was infamously subjected to sexist questions no other astronaut was ever asked: Will the flight affect your reproductive organs? Do you weep when things go wrong on the job? Will you become a mother?
Sally retired from NASA in 1987 & continued to work in the sciences. She co-founded her own company, Sally Ride Science (@SallyRideSci) whose purpose is to motivate young students, especially girls, to pursue science, technology, engineering and math.
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In 1982, Sally married fellow NASA astronaut Steve Hawley. They divorced in 1987.
It was revealed in Sally’s obituary that her partner of 27 years was Tam O'Shaughnessy, a professor of psychology. They met when both were tennis players in school. Tam wrote the obituary
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Out to close friends & family, Ride & O'Shaughnessy chose to hide the nature of their relationship for their company.
They were never able to legally marry. They became Certified Domestic Partners in CA in 2011 after Sally’s pancreatic cancer diagnosis.
m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5a…
Both Ride and O'Shaughnessy, who was also a science writer, co-founded Sally Ride Science.
O'Shaughnessy now serves as the CEO and Chairwoman of Sally Ride Science. They wrote 7 acclaimed children's science books together.
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Ride was an honoree in the Nat’l Women's Hall of Fame & the Astronaut Hall of Fame. She was given the National Space Grant Distinguished Service Award by President Obama in 2012, shortly before her death.
A list of Sally’s awards and contributions: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride
President Obama posthumously awarded Ride w/the Presidential Medal of Freedom & presented the medal to her life partner Tam O'Shaughnessy in a ceremony at the WH Nov 20, 2013, becoming one of the 1st to accept the honor on behalf of their same-sex partner
m.huffpost.com/us/entry/us_5a…
Although Sally Ride risked her life for her country, her domestic partner of 27 years wouldn’t receive any gov’t benefits because they were still denied to same-sex couples just 6 years ago in 2012. Gay marriage wasn’t legal nationally til 2015.
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ideas.time.com/2012/07/27/dom…
In 2013, Janelle Monáe released a song called "Sally Ride"
Sally Ride died on July 23, 2012, at the age of 61, in her home in La Jolla, California, 17 months after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
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