2nd Place; The Gay Space Agency by Mackenzie Calle

From the late 1950s, astronauts on NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs were required to take two heterosexuality tests, and in 1994, NASA asked ‘to include homosexuality as a psychiatrically disqualifying condition’ for astronauts. The psychiatric team protested, but NASA insisted. A 2022 study found that LGBTQ+ astronauts felt that being out may ‘hurt their chances of getting a [Space Shuttle] flight’ and, to date, NASA has never selected or flown an openly LGBTQ+ astronaut.

The Gay Space Agency confronts the exclusion of openly queer astronauts. The series offers a queer counter-narrative to the history that has prevented the LGBTQ+ community from flying and imagines a more accepting future. 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. The Gay Space Agency asks what it truly means to have the ‘right stuff’.