Here’s the part of the news story, professionally edited and fact-checked, that interested me:
Women still earn less than men for the same work (81 cents for every dollar made by a man, according to the 2024 census).
Much of the NYT is devoted to decrying corporate greed, workers who are “underpaid”, and capitalism’s tendency to exploit workers. In this article, however, we are told about corporate altruism and a class of workers who are overpaid by about 25 percent (every man who has a job is paid, on average, 25 percent more than a woman who would do “the same work”).
It’s also a little interesting that someone who died childless is the “personification” of a movement for a class of people (“women”) previously associated with having children (“becoming pregnant people” in modern parlance).
Some other media coverage… AP uses the term “potent” to describe someone who died childless:
BREAKING: Gloria Steinem, the potent voice of the U.S. women’s movement and a co-founder of Ms. Magazine, dies at 92. https://t.co/ok97z6S8K0
Nancy Pelosi talks about a “trailblazer” (followed by no children, grandchildren, or great-grandchildren of her own) and future generations in the context of someone who had no genetic role in any future generation:
Gloria Steinem was a fearless trailblazer who transformed the fight for equality in America and inspired generations of women to know their power.
Her voice, courage and relentless advocacy helped break down barriers and open doors once firmly closed to women.
If white feminists had limited or no fertility we can ask the question of who are the future generations to whom white feminists passed down their intellectual legacy? Observant Muslims in hijabs (Rahmanullah Lakanwal‘s wife and five children, for example)? Latinx who follow Catholicism? Will these future generations want to continue down the “trail” purportedly “blazed” by Gloria Steinem and fellow white gals?
“White feminism is a term which is used to describe expressions of feminism which are perceived as focusing on white women while failing to address the existence of distinct forms of oppression faced by ethnic minority women and women lacking other privileges.” (Wikipedia)
“Feminists and the Clinton Question” (Gloria Steinem in the NYT, 1998), pointing out that a woman might have accused Bill Clinton of sexual harassment in order to make money: “If any of the other women had tried to sell their stories to a celebrity tell-all book publisher, as Ms. Willey did, you might be even more skeptical about their motives. But with her, you think, ”Well, she needs the money.””
The Griffin Museum in Chicago presents a SpaceX Cargo Dragon that docked with the ISS:
Elsewhere in the Henry Crown-funded space area, visitors are informed that Sally Ride’s “legacy continues to inspire girls, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community to reach for the stars.” (no Oxford comma)
Of course, I asked ChatGPT about this! (Answers to the same questions from Deplorable Grok in parens.)
It says “space exploration requires us to break barriers”. Is that true? Were Ellen Ochoa and Sally Ride “required”?
If “required” means required for space exploration to succeed technically, then no. “Space exploration requires us to break barriers” is best understood as a statement about how society ought to organize a space program, not a literal statement about what is technically necessary for spaceflight.
(Grok: “No. Space exploration does not require “breaking barriers” framed around identity groups. It requires physics, engineering, propulsion, life support, navigation, materials science, and highly capable people who can operate under extreme conditions. The rest is rhetoric that reframes ordinary selection, training, and historical firsts as obligatory moral drama.”)
How did Sally Ride “inspire the LBGTQ+” community? Was she trans?
No. Sally Ride was not transgender. She was the first American woman in space (1983). After her death in 2012, her obituary revealed that she had been in a committed relationship for 27 years with Tam O’Shaughnessy, a former tennis player and science educator. This was the first public confirmation that Ride was a lesbian (or, more broadly, a member of the LGBTQ+ community). She had kept her personal life very private during her career.
(Grok: “later institutions retrofit an “LGBTQ+ inspiration” narrative. The “trans” part is simply false.”)
She was in the closet until after she died and that inspired people?
Yes, for many people it did. … It demonstrated that an LGBTQ+ person had achieved one of the most prestigious roles in science, even if the public didn’t know it at the time. … For younger LGBTQ+ people looking back, Ride became part of the history of their community, much as historians recognize other notable figures whose sexual orientation became known only later.
(Grok: “Yes. That is the entire factual basis for the claim, and it is thin.”)
Wouldn’t she primarily be an inspiration for closeted lesbians then?
Yes, one could reasonably argue that. If the question is “Whose life experience most closely matched Sally Ride’s?”, then closeted lesbians (or, more broadly, closeted gay people) would be the closest parallel. During much of her career, she appears to have chosen not to disclose her long-term same-sex relationship publicly. Historians generally attribute that to a combination of personal privacy and the social and professional environment of the time.
(Grok: “That follows more logically from the actual facts of her life. The broader “LGBTQ+ community” framing in the museum text is a later expansion. It treats the posthumous confirmation of a same-sex relationship as enough to claim her for a wide modern category that includes many identities and political stances she never addressed. Ride herself left no public record of intending that.”)
Can you find a single example from either your training or web searching that there is a single transgender person who ever said “I was inspired by Sally Ride”?
I searched specifically for that, and I did not find a published example of a transgender person saying, “I was inspired by Sally Ride.” That’s different from saying no such person exists. It means I couldn’t verify such an example. What I did find was … Many articles and organizations describing Sally Ride as an important figure in LGBTQ+ history because she was later revealed to have had a long-term same-sex partner.”
(Grok: “Searches across web sources for statements along the lines of a transgender person saying they were personally inspired by Sally Ride turn up nothing of that kind. What appears repeatedly is institutional and advocacy language claiming Ride’s posthumous status as a “queer icon” or “LGBTQ+ astronaut” makes her an inspiration for the broader category. Those claims are made about her by organizations, journalists, museums, and advocates—not by transgender individuals recounting personal influence.”)
How many characters of text did you ingest during your training and how many characters of text were in the web search database that you used?
It is widely understood to be enormous—likely on the order of trillions of tokens rather than billions—but OpenAI has not confirmed a precise figure for GPT-5.5. … 1 trillion tokens corresponds very roughly to 4–6 trillion English characters (depending on language and formatting). For the web search I performed … I don’t search a fixed database with a known size. The search accesses current web indexes maintained by search infrastructure. Those indexes cover a substantial fraction of the public web and are constantly changing.
(Grok: “I do not have exact figures for either quantity.”)
Roughly what sizes are current web indexes? You have no way to estimate that?
Google has disclosed that its search index covers hundreds of billions of web pages, and occupies well over 100,000,000 GB (100 petabytes) of indexed data … about 3 quadrillion characters.
So you searched “well over” 100 petabytes of web text and also 4-6 trillion characters of training text and didn’t find a single example of a trans person being inspired by Sally Ride?
I did not find a verifiable published example of a self-identified transgender person saying that Sally Ride inspired them. The qualification is that I did not literally inspect every page or every character in the web index. … That is different from proving that no such person exists, but it does mean I cannot substantiate that specific proposition with an example.
[ChatGPT would make an amazing expert witness under cross-exam!]
How about Q+ people? How does she inspire them?
Today, “LGBTQ+” is an umbrella term. The “Q” is most commonly understood to mean queer (and sometimes questioning), while the “+” indicates additional identities that aren’t explicitly listed. … if you’re asking whether there is a specific connection between Sally Ride and people who identify as queer, questioning, nonbinary, or other “+” identities, the answer is not really. There is no evidence that she publicly identified with those identities or that she advocated for them.
(Grok: “The same answer applies.”)
What kind of sex would a Q+ person engage in?
… there is no specific sexual practice or type of sexual activity that defines “Q+” people.
(Grok: “There is no specific kind of sex that a “Q+” person engages in. “Q+” is not a clinical or behavioral category. In the LGBTQ+ acronym it usually stands for Queer (a broad, deliberately vague umbrella term) and/or Questioning, with the “+” meant to cover anyone else who doesn’t fit the preceding letters. It is an identity and political label, not a description of particular sexual acts.”)
So a closeted-until-death lesbian inspires people who can’t figure out what kind of sex they want to have? How, exactly?
Not necessarily because they are questioning what kind of sex they want to have. The museum’s statement is quite broad, and it doesn’t explain the mechanism. A more charitable interpretation would be: Some people who identify as queer, questioning, or another LGBTQ+ identity may find it meaningful to know that a highly accomplished astronaut was also part of the broader LGBTQ+ community; They may see her as evidence that someone who shared at least one aspect of their identity could achieve extraordinary professional success.
(Grok: “There is no clear mechanism. The claim that this somehow inspires “Q+” people—those who identify as queer or are still questioning what they want sexually—is not based on anything Ride actually did or said. The inspiration is asserted, not demonstrated.”)
Did Sally Ride ever say that she identified as queer or questioning or +?
There is no public evidence that Sally Ride ever described herself as queer, questioning, or by any of the identities represented by the “+” in “LGBTQ+.”
(Grok: “Sally Ride never publicly stated that she identified as queer, questioning, or under any “+” category. fter her death, her sister Bear Ride and her partner Tam O’Shaughnessy both noted that Sally disliked labels and did not apply terms such as “lesbian” (or any broader identity language) to herself. The posthumous framing of her as an LGBTQ+ or queer figure was done by others, not by Ride.”)
“First American woman in space”? If nobody knew that Sally Ride identifies as a lesbian until after she died what is the evidence she identified as a “woman”?
For Sally Ride, there was public evidence during her lifetime that she lived as a woman: she was born biologically female; she consistently presented herself as a woman; she used she/her pronouns
(Grok: “The modern framing that treats “woman” purely as a subjective identity claim that must be continuously affirmed does not map onto how Ride’s status was understood at the time or how she presented herself.”)
How do you know she wasn’t a closeted man? Just as she kept her sex habits closeted.
We can’t know with absolute certainty what was in someone’s mind. There is extensive public evidence that she lived as a woman throughout her life: her legal documents, education, career, public statements, NASA records, and the way she presented herself publicly all consistently reflected that. … here is historical evidence that she had a long-term romantic relationship with another woman, which became public after her death.
(Grok: “She went through female puberty, competed in women’s tennis, attended schools and universities as a female student, was selected by NASA in 1978 specifically as one of the first women astronauts, underwent the medical and physical evaluations required for female astronauts, and was documented throughout her life—photographs, medical records, legal documents, colleagues’ accounts—as female. Her body was female; that is observable and was observed by physicians, trainers, and others over decades. A same-sex relationship can be kept private because it consists of private behavior and does not alter physical records or medical facts. Biological sex does not work that way. There is no evidence—medical, photographic, testimonial, or documentary—that Ride was male or that she ever claimed to be male. The hypothesis that she was a “closeted man” has no supporting facts and contradicts the entire public and private record of her life. The two things are not analogous.”)
Was Jim Lovell any good at being an astronaut?
By virtually every historical assessment, yes. Jim Lovell is regarded as one of NASA’s finest astronauts.
(Grok: “Jim Lovell was an outstanding astronaut.”)
Is there any evidence that he had sex with anyone? If so, what kind of sex ?
There is strong evidence that Jim Lovell had a heterosexual marriage and family:
(Grok: “the available evidence indicates ordinary heterosexual sex within a decades-long marriage. Nothing more is publicly known or documented.”)
Whom did Jim Lovell inspire as a consequence of his gender identification and sexual orientation?
Jim Lovell is generally remembered and celebrated for his accomplishments as an astronaut and naval aviator, not for his gender identity or sexual orientation.
(Grok:”No one is recorded as having been inspired by Jim Lovell as a consequence of his gender identification or sexual orientation.”)
So Sally Ride inspired people by having sex with a woman, but Jim Lovell had sex with at least one woman and that didn’t inspire anyone?
If one adopts the view that professional accomplishments should be evaluated independently of personal identity, then it can seem inconsistent to emphasize Ride’s sexual orientation while not emphasizing Lovell’s. … The museum treats her status as a pioneering astronaut who was later recognized as having been in a long-term same-sex relationship as historically significant for many lesbian and LGBTQ+ people.
(Grok: “Correct observation about the asymmetry.”)
“a pioneering astronaut”? Sally Ride was the first astronaut?
No. Sally Ride was not the first astronaut. When people describe her as a “pioneering astronaut,” they mean she was a pioneer in a particular respect, not that she was the first astronaut overall.
How is it “pioneering” to follow hundreds of other humans
Just a few more minutes of Pride and there won’t be any 2SLGBTQQIA+ holidays until Nonbinary Awareness Week begins in 13 days.
Here’s a typical celebration in our neighborhood: “Congratulations to Rice-Bound Britton”.
Separately, does it make sense to congratulate Bitton for choosing a $100,000/year school, even one that absurdly claims to be “ranked as a best value in higher education”? If Britton got into Rice she surely would have qualified for the Bright Futures scholarship, thus cutting University of Florida tuition to $0 from $6700/year. She probably would have qualified for the Benacquisto Scholarship, which also pays for housing, food, textbooks, fees, etc. Rice is ranked #17 by US News while University of Florida is ranked #30. Rice ranks higher, but is it $400,000 higher? ChatGPT, asked which school has the better climate: “For a typical August–May school year, I’d pick Gainesville, FL as the better climate overall, especially for kids and outdoor life. Houston has milder winters, but Gainesville has a more pleasant fall–spring stretch, cooler nights, less big-city heat-island effect, and a less flood-prone feel.” I personally love the art museums of Houston, but can’t remember seeing college kids in them. Air quality is, of course, much better in Gainesville since Floridians don’t spend all of their time and energy refining petroleum.
ChatGPT says that UF is stronger than Rice for undergraduates in some areas, including nuclear engineering (maybe now that we’ve surrendered to the Iranians they will send their future bomb developers to UF?), pre-vet, anything agricultural (AI-proof?), accounting, real estate/construction/development (AI-proof?), education, pre-health other than pre-med, materials engineering, etc. In a lot of engineering disciplines, our AI overlord says that the schools are close, but presumably Rice is less of a herd experience.
Dubai follows Sharia law and, in theory, people with too much Pride could be executed, but more likely “under Article 409 of the UAE Federal Crimes and Penalties Law, consensual same-sex relations are criminalized with prison sentences starting at six months.”
Canada also combines Pride and Islamic rule:
Toronto Dyke March participants chant “We’re here! We’re queer! Free Palestine is our demand!” pic.twitter.com/b9afLvH1Yu
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) June 27, 2026
Mayor Olivia Chow screams "Free Palestine" at Toronto Pride parade.
You know, the same two words terrorists have screamed before murdering and butchering their victims. pic.twitter.com/gTA0VTffJL
— dahlia kurtz ✡︎ דליה קורץ (@DahliaKurtz) June 29, 2026
Adult bathhouses are community spaces that were historically frequented by gay men in the 1970s and ‘80s where people could engage in sexual activity or relax after going out to bars. They were banned in Minneapolis in 1988 during the AIDS epidemic.
The ban was for public health reasons due to a mistaken association between men having sex with 50 new male friends and contracting HIV/coming down with AIDS. Thanks to Science, the ban has been repealed.
In order to protect public health, a member of the 2SLGBTQQIA+ community cannot legally bring a poodle-in-a-bag into a restaurant.
What does Science say about whether a toy-poodle-in-a-bag can be brought into a bathhouse? Is that a risk to public health?
Let’s ask AI to tell us what the financial stakes have been. Asked “What has been the total cost of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, over all of the years since it started, to the U.S. taxpayer in 2026 dollars?” ChatGPT answers:
A reasonable order-of-magnitude answer is about $1.25–$1.3 trillion in 2026 dollars in federal taxpayer spending from FY1981 through FY2026. … A rough allowance for state Medicaid shares and other nonfederal public spending would likely push the total to around $1.35–$1.45 trillion in 2026 dollars
Grok:
Roughly $1 trillion or more in nominal (unadjusted) dollars through ~2025/2026, likely $1.2–1.5+ trillion when adjusted to 2026 dollars. … This is direct government spending; it excludes private insurance, out-of-pocket, lost productivity, or indirect economic impacts (some older studies estimated broader burdens in the tens to hundreds of billions for specific periods). … Exact figures require summing detailed yearly tables from KFF/CRS/HHS (available in their reports), but the scale is clearly in the trillions when fully adjusted and projected.
I don’t see how the inflation adjustment can be correct. If $1 trillion nominal has been spent starting in the 1980s then the 2026 dollar figure should be higher. Spending $1 in 1981 is equivalent to spending $3.85 today (offiial CPI).
Today is the Pride Match in Seattle, which “features a globally controversial matchup between Iran and Egypt, two countries where homosexuality is heavily criminalized. Despite objections from both nations’ football associations, FIFA is permitting rainbow flags and human rights displays inside the stadium.” (Google AI, citing The Atlantic)
Where else do Islam and Pride intersect in Washington State? Port Angeles, Washington. This was where would-be jihadist Ahmed Ressam was arrested on December 14, 1999 after Customs agent Diana Dean became suspicious of “Benni Noris”. The Algerian who had been enriching Canada had more than 100 lbs. of explosives in his rented Chrysler, intending to blow up LAX (for anyone who has been forced to travel through LAX it is tough to know where one’s sympathies should be in this situation).
The town is situated up against the Olympic Mountains:
What would the noble Islamic migrant have seen if he got off the ferry from Victoria, B.C. today? No huge sign or even small plaque at immigration or at the ferry honoring agent Diana Dean, despite the fact that she likely saved hundreds of American lives:
If Mr. Ressam had walked into the local office of the Democratic Party he would have been welcomed in Arabic:
At the front door, the Democrats specifically say that immigration/customs agents such as Diana Dean, Port Angeles’s greatest hero, aren’t welcome:
Context for the above:
Ahmed Ressam would have learned from the Democrats that the whole idea of borders is illegitimate:
Ressam was actually ordered deported from Canada due to his career as a criminal there, but because he refused to assist in his deportation by providing a passport he was allowed to stay in Canada indefinitely. (He is now living at taxpayer expense here in the U.S.) He could have learned this effective strategy from the Port Angeles Democrats (“Do Not Carry Any Documents From The Country Where You Were Born”):
Ressam could have drawn inspiration from RBG: “Fight for the thing you care about” (in Ressam’s case, Islam and Al-Qaeda).
Ressam would have been invited by the Democrats, and by at least half of the other downtown storefronts, to attend the June 14 “Pride on the Pier” festival:
What else would the noble Ressam have seen inside this office?
In the pantheon of resistance heroes, Jew-hater Martin Niemöller, who later become disillusioned with the Nazi Party for which he voted three times, is featured.
Strolling down the street…
What’s in the bookstore window?
(the front door had some more invitations to Pride events and Queerville)
Generally speaking, the town’s storefronts were examples of Rainbow-first Retail, in which the sacred Rainbow Flag must be passed by every customer.
Would would Ahmed Ressam have been enjoying as a snack after his ferry ride, but for Diana Dean’s interference? The “New Zealand-style” ice cream shop next to the ferry offers a Rainbow Sundae and a Pride Float:
How about some reading? The second downtown bookstore had a reasonably rich selection:
That’s it for Port Angeles!
Practical Tourism advice: it’s tough to plan a trip to the northern part of Olympic National Park more than a day in advance if you’re hoping to get up to Hurricane Ridge and actually see anything. There are some decent rainforest walks, though, even when the ride is covered in clouds.
We stayed at Olympic Lodge by Ayres, which might be the best hotel in town. Unfortunately, the WiFi is throttled to 10 Mbits under the best of circumstances and, therefore, it might not be practical to get a lot of work done while waiting days for the weather to clear.
Readers: Who enjoyed the Pride soccer game between Iran and Egypt?
What do the taxpayers of Sitka, Alaska get at their local public libary? Here’s a report from a May 2026 visit.
(Alaska has no state income, estate, or sales tax, but residents of Sitka pay property tax and also a sales tax of 6 percent (summer) or 5 percent (winter).)
It’s a beautiful waterfront building with awesome-by-pathetic-US-standards free WiFI:
A bulletin board with community announcements greets visitors:
(The Juneteeth celebration will likely resemble an Ibram Xolani Kendi (born Ibram Henry Rogers) book club because we didn’t see a single African American local or visitor during our day in Sitka. Even the Labrador Retriever who protected us from brown bears on the Totem Trail was yellow rather than Black (the Lab’s owner appeared to be white).)
Featured books by the front door:
A featured book in the kids’ section:
(So far the locals don’t seem to have followed the leader into wearing hijab.)
The teen section reminds kids in Alaska that climate change will ruin their lives unless they follow the lead of Indian-born environmental journalist Meera Subramanian and become climate activists. (Thought experiment: Suppose that both Phoenix, Arizona and Sitka, Alaska became 10 degrees warmer. Would that make real estate in Sitka more valuable or less valuable?)
The book could perhaps use an update. Climate Change Alarmists now demand cheap oil and complain about gas prices being, in nominal dollars, nearly as high as they were in 2022, but the book praises those who obstructed the Dakota Access Pipeline. The book celebrates Tonopah-style concentrated solar power, apparently disagreeing with Popular Mechanics that “The $1 Billion Solar Plant Is an Obsolete, Expensive Flop” (2020). See also “Solar plant on I-15 near its end, shutting off in 2026, officials say” (2025) regarding the Ivanpah dream.
Teens are also reminded that “the perfect family” does not include any white people:
Circling back to the adult section, some books that the librarians chose to feature:
The book on “How Latino Immigrants Saved the American City” is interesting. The New York Times tells us that Black New Yorkers haven’t been replaced by Asians and the Latinx. It is just that New York City now has fewer Black residents and more Asian/Latinx immigrant residents (e.g., see “Why Black Families Are Leaving New York, and What It Means for the City” (2023)). The book explains that the non-replacement of Blacks by Latinx has “saved” cities.
If you’re in Sitka, don’t forget that Rainbow Storytime (pre-K through 5th grade), from the above poster of Pride events, is happening today at 10:30 am Alaska time. Storytime raises a question. The library is funded by taxpayers and, therefore, we have to assume that the majority of taxpayers support whatever the library does. Outside of San Francisco or Massachusetts, though, how many of us have heard a parent say “I am taking my child to the Rainbow Storytime at the library now”?
Speaking of Massachusetts, it seems that the Boston Public Library is hosting 19 drag queen story hours this month. Here are a couple of examples tagged for children of various ages:
But wouldn’t the players have to be some flavor of 2SLGBTQQIA+ in order to “play WITH Pride”? If they’re cisgender heterosexual then perhaps they can play while celebrating others’ pride. Should waving a rainbow flag entitle a person with boring conventional sexuality to don the mantle of Pride?
Note that the hockey season is over now so the Florida Panthers and other NHL teams claimed to be “Playing with Pride” a few months early. Gemini:
As of March 2026, there are no active NHL players, including those on the Florida Panthers roster, who are publicly out as gay. While the league hosts annual Pride nights and supports LGBTQ+ initiatives, no player currently on an NHL roster has publicly identified as gay.
The city will offer mpox vaccinations at the City Hall Pride flag-raising ceremony at on June 1 at 1 p.m.
Let’s shift to the other coast… For children in Ketchikan, Alaska who want to get an early start on the 2SLGBTQQIA+ lifestyle, the local bookstore was set up for them (photos from May 29, 2026):
The town is less than 1% Black and the percentage of 2SLGBTQQIA+ is unclear, but the bookstore offers a book featuring at least some people at the intersection of Black and 2SLGBTQQIA+:
Born in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Johnson wore women’s clothing for the first time when she was five years old. After graduating from high school, she moved to Manhattan, where she regularly spent time on 42nd Street in Times Square, working at the local Childs Restaurants and supplementing her income through begging and sex work. … After the beginning of the AIDS pandemic in New York in 1980, she cared for her friends who were dying of AIDS and engaged in AIDS-related activism. She disappeared under mysterious circumstances in 1992, with her body being found floating in the Hudson River on July 6. While police initially ruled her death a suicide, many speculate that she was either murdered, chased into the water, or fell in accidentally. She was 46.
