the legacy of sally ride as uh... many of you probably know she passed away
yesterday pancreatic cancer at the age of sixty-one and she left behind her
partner of twenty seven years ten ashanti
uh... and she also left behind her mother joyce their sister bear bernie
skate land nephew whitney
and a staff and a lot of friends and colleagues um... as as most of you know
sally was the first american woman in space
uh... she was shade left aboard and the uh... space craft the challenger
just months before i was born on june eighteenth nineteen eighty-three
and not only was she the first american woman in space station is the first l_d_
bt individual with space and she also after she retired from nasa
founded a company called sally right science which encourages young people's
interest in science
and it's funny because after she fully with the very first challenger mission
she was asked by a lot of media
what it's like to be a woman in nasa
we have a hard day on the job do you cry is it different for a woman to fly in
space
and i love her response he said
it's no big thing it's too bad this society isn't further along and this is
still such a big deal its time people in this country realized that women can do
it any job they want to know
and i just think that so inspirational that that came out before i was even
born i've looked up to sally my entire life my entire scientific career
and i just want a banker for all of her contributions to science and say that
shopping this what i didn't know before sunrise pass away was a bit bit was
issues the lesbian
and they shared as part of her twenty seven years and years his cheek known
for fifty right and so now what's interesting about that is
of course she does not get that the partner does not give the same benefits
as uh... m
different gender partners would get the of the world are right-to-life
but they did not for twenty seven years in the park was a man he would have
gotten her social security benefits annually gotten now federal health care
benefits that would've continued uh... and he would not have been at the
tax on the state tax for a significant rumbled probably in her case all did
uh... and he would not have been tax summary tire me savings
but instead
since this a woman and they were not legally allowed to marry
uh... and eight
she will have to
you know suffer
the signi
financial consequence of that
so i bring that up because he was someone that everybody knows is an
american hero in even mit romney today talked about how she was an american
hero
but at the same time we say hey you know what
because of who she was and who she loved
it doesn't matter what her competence work
the her partner of choice
love the one
will not get the same rights and benefits
as third straight partner without
and that's what we call discrimination
and that's why we fight against
exactly and this is affecting thousands of people all over the country all of
the time and i think sometimes that's what happens if take somebody
was in the public eye somebody who
kind of nobody can argue is not an american hero to bring this issue it's a
light and hopefully more people start talking about this i would love to see
what mitt romney's take is on it
on current at seven o'clock eastern will give you more details on what some
experts on a tutsis a fascinating story
of how we treat uh...
america's in different ways because in all the best will sell was a big deal
if you know if uh...
you could provide for your loved one the same way that others could be using it
was a big deal too
well on it they had to learn the custody of the total would be an enormous issue
one and lack of one sally it was in a position i mean she died of pancreatic
cancer this year is battling for about seven that seventeen months i think
the kind of musicians gonna go and reports say that she she died peacefully
but what if it were a different situation where she where on life
support what if there was a question about um... organ donation any of those
things and her partner wouldn't have the right to make any of those end-of-life
decisions with her for her and that's obviously the person who she would have
discussed those end-of-life decisions with input she would've wanted to have
make those decisions you see that two different social laws
depending on who you are
that is a textbook definition of discrimination