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Sally Ride Astronaut Educator first american woman in space (L); Tam OShaughnessy of UC San Diego (R)
“We had a wonderful relationship from the time we were kids until we became lovers,” Tam O'Shaughnessy said.
Just ten days before her death in 2012, Sally Ride assured her partner it was OK to come out.
Tam O’Shaughnessy, Ride's partner of 27 years, is opening up about their relationship in a new documentary centered around the pioneering astronaut's life and career, Sally — something that O’Shaughnessy recently revealed Ride gave her permission to do shortly before she passed away from pancreatic cancer complications at age 61.
“Ten days before she died, I asked her how I should be to the public,” O’Shaughnessy told PEOPLE. “I was holding sort of a public celebration of her life, and then a national tribute at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. And it was like, ‘So who am I?’ Our friends and family knew, and people guessed. It didn’t feel honest. She told me, you decide what you want to say, how open you want to be about our relationship.”
Sally tells the story of the first American woman in space through interviews, archival footage, and reenactments, much of it informed by O’Shaughnessy. The film delves into not only the homophobia that kept Ride from coming out but also the pervasive sexism the first women astronauts faced.
The movie also features Sally’s sister, Bear Ride; her mother, Carol Joyce Ride; and other astronauts who entered the space program with Ride in 1978: Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, John Fabian, and Steve Hawley. Ride was married to Hawley for five years before her relationship with O’Shaughnessy. Hawley said in the documentary he and Ride married "in good faith," although he suspected she was gay.
O’Shaughnessy and Ride first met at a youth tennis camp where Billie Jean King taught, though their friendship would not become romantic until 1985. Their relationship only became public knowledge upon Ride’s death in 2012, when O’Shaughnessy came out.
“We had a wonderful relationship from the time we were kids until we became lovers,” O'Shaughnessy continued. “I think it's something to be proud of.”
Sally is available to stream on Disney+ and Hulu.
