Jan 02, 2023 20:00:00

How did the naming of the James Webb Space Telescope develop into a fight over homophobia?

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NASA's James Webb Space Telescope

The James Webb Space Telescope, which launched on December 25, 2021, has brought various discoveries and valuable data to the scientific community since it began full-scale operation in July 2022. However, there was some controversy over the naming of the James Webb Space Telescope, as some claimed that James E. Webb, the second NASA administrator for whom the Space Telescope was named, was homophobic. The York Times reports.

How Naming the James Webb Telescope Turned Into a Fight Over Homophobia - The New York Times
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/12/19/us/james-webb-telescope-gay-rights.html

NASA investigates renaming James Webb telescope after anti-LGBT+ claims
https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-021-02010-x

James Webb, who is in the midst of the debate that he may be homophobic, was not a person who could be evaluated one-sidedly as a discriminator. Webb, who was appointed as the secretary of NASA under the John F. Kennedy administration, has welcomed black engineers and scientists to NASA, and has been promoting blacks from the governor of Alabama, who had developed a racist political theory. When he was pressured to quit, he was recorded as threatening to 'recruit a competent scientist from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama to the center.'

But Webb, who served as Undersecretary of State under Truman, faced a different problem than racism. That is homosexual discrimination. A group of right-wing Republicans, led by Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was at the forefront of anti-communism at the time, attacked the State Department in an attempt to expose communists and homosexuals who were then labeled 'perverts.' He said he was there.

David K. Johnson, professor of history at the University of South Florida and author of

The Lavender Scare , a book about homophobia, wrote in his book, ' Lavender Scare is like the Red Scare. It was an attack on President Roosevelt's political legacy.'

It's unclear exactly what Webb's attitude was toward these trends. President Truman advised Webb to 'delay the Republican investigation,' but Webb did not openly defy legal orders. NASA also has records that Webb did not submit personnel files to Senate investigators.

The anti-gay 'lavender picking' has driven some 5,000 to 10,000 gay employees out of the government over the past 20 years, derailing their careers. Among them is NASA budget analyst Clifford Norton, who was arrested by police on charges of homosexual activity. It's unclear how Webb reacted to Norton's arrest, or whether he defended him, but Norton was forced out of his job due to the arrest.

It is a big stain on NASA that there was a time when such homophobic discrimination was openly practiced. In a

report released on November 19, 2022, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said, 'For decades discrimination against LGBTQI+ federal employees has not only been tolerated, it has shamefully It has been fueled by government policy, and the post-World War II lavender picking is a pivotal point in America's story and the fight for LGBTQI+ rights.'

However, he denied the suspicion that Webb was complicit in homophobic discrimination, saying, ``We found no evidence that Webb was a leader or supporter of measures to dismiss public officials because of their sexual orientation.'' doing.

Also, there are voices that appreciate the attitude of responding to racism. Hakeem Orsay, president of the National Society of Black Physicists, said, 'Webb's fair assessment is his willingness to stand up to the separatist governor.' For me, being from the South, Webb was heroic at the time.'

Webb's critics, meanwhile, accused Webb of ignoring homophobic discrimination at NASA and the State Department. In a 2015 article for Forbes, science journalist Matthew Francis accused Webb of leading an anti-gay purge at the State Department, calling Webb a 'homophobic.'

Criticism of Webb is also persistent in the scientific community, and in May 2021, four astronomers launched a petition to change the name of the James Webb Space Telescope, and the scientist who was awarded for the observation time using the telescope. It is said that 1250 signatures including 1250 people gathered. The four astronomers also show that Webb, while in the State Department, handed a memo titled 'The Problem of Gays and Transsexuals' to lawmakers who were at the forefront of homophobic discrimination. He said he had a record.

Others say it's fair to say Webb didn't know that an employee at one of the thousands of government agencies had lost his job due to homophobic discrimination. 'Activists who say Webb should have spoken out are anachronistic,' Johnson said. It was.'

Of these debates, The New York Times said, 'This debate gets to the heart of the conundrum of who deserves credit and how to balance past human achievements with contemporary social justice. It also serves as a mirror to the fierce debate among historians about 'presentism', which sees past times and people through a modern moral lens.'