Mackenzie Calle - The Gay Space Agency

Описание: NASA’s Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo astronaut candidates were required to take two heterosexuality tests.

In 1994, NASA asked flight surgeon Dr. Patricia Santy, “to include homosexuality as a psychiatrically disqualifying condition,” for astronauts. The psychiatric team protested, but NASA insisted.

To date, NASA has never selected or flown an openly LGBTQ+ astronaut.

The Gay Space Agency confronts the American space program’s historical exclusion of openly queer astronauts. The series celebrates queerness and highlights the history that has prevented the LGBTQ+ community from flying. Using a mix of original photography and manipulated public-domain NASA archival material, the project offers a counter-narrative to the history of the astronaut program and imagines a diverse and accepting future in space. The first phase of the project highlights the history that has prevented the LGBTQ+ community from flying. The second phase imagines queer astronauts with a fictional space agency called the Gay Space Agency (GSA).

In 1983, Sally Ride became not only the first American woman in space but is currently recognized as the first queer astronaut. However, her sexuality would not become public until 2012 when her obituary read, “Dr. Ride is survived by her first partner of 27 years. Tam O’Shaughnessy.” She chose to keep her sexuality private and was never out in her lifetime.

To bridge the diversity gap and work towards a more inclusive future, this project envisions queer people in space. By traversing its edges, we can imagine a world that is not limited by anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments.

As NASA’s Artemis program aims to establish a permanent presence at the moon beginning in 2026, The Gay Space Agency asks what it truly means to have the “right stuff.”

Mackenzie Calle is a freelance photographer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her project, The Gay Space Agency, was awarded the 2024 World Press Photo for North & Central America, Open Format, and was a finalist for the 2024 Sony World Photography Awards.

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