No disrespect, but how lame is the Sally Ride relationship coverage?

LANGUAGE WARNING

Here’s one example, albeit from an LGBT&c advocacy group.

What’s abundantly clear is that she’s already being lionized for… for what? 

The fact that she was the first U.S. woman into outer space might survive the coverage.  But all the excellence of her life, all that goes into being an astronaut, all that is going to be secondary to her sexual identity.  Even the fact that she was in a 27 year relationship will be sublimated to the fact that it was a lesbian relationship.

Also overlooked is the fact that NOT “coming out of the closet” was part and parcel of her excellence.  She achieved goals that would have been tossed in the backseat had she chosen to lead with her sexual orientation.  In other words, the activists who have little to show for their lives except their sexual preferences would be happier with her as a reality show loser than as an astronaut with a distinguished service record.  She chose her identity - United States Astronaut - and sought affection in the way that appealed to her.

The coverage also misses the obvious - that our system allows all kinds of people to excel.  It’s not the concentration camp that the LGBT&c professionals claim.  Ride lived by the maxims that most Americans observe: “Keep the government out of the bedroom.  What two consenting adults do is between them and God.”  That really is how most of us live - most of us are closeted to some extent.  Beyond being identified as a married man, chattering about my sexuality would constitute inappropriate behavior in a workplace and get me fired if I refused to keep it in the closet.

Some of the usual suspects, to whom I will not give additional press here, are already arguing “She should have come out to encourage all the struggling LGBT&c children!”  That’s the crazed evolution of the “self-esteem” movement.  Self-esteem is not established by what one does - like being an astronaut - but by what one feels, especially in one’s tingly places.  And of course it’s not really about the well being of children - it is about neurotic adults who want to take their stuff out of that private bedroom and get it in front of an audience, as if having sexual desire makes them noteworthy.

LAST LANGUAGE WARNING

I guess the aburdity of the coverage is best illustrated by other absurd (one would think) headline ideas:

Medal of Honor Winner Masturbated as Teen

Olympic Medalist Prefers Missionary Position

Nobel Prize Laureate Likes Heavy Petting

Am I a bit crude here?  Sure.  But we, as a culture, are vaunting stuff that hamsters and frogs can do over things only possible for beings made in the image of God.

May Sally Ride rest in peace.  May her partner and her close circle of family and friends, who honored her life by respecting her desire for privacy, be comforted in their loss.  And may our culture get a grip.