“his husband”

It still stands out. “His husband.” I’ve blogged before about coming across that (by now innocuous?) phrase. 

The authors of a book about the New Horizons mission to Pluto and the outer solar system are listing the members of a “group of old friends from the New Horizons science team [who] had gathered at a viewing site, anxious for their baby to take flight after so many years of hard work. … Science team geology and geophysics team lead Jeff Moore was there with his daughter and his mom. Geologist Paul Schenk was with his husband, David; Leslie Young was with her husband, Paul. Bill McKinnon had his kids in tow.”

There it is, “his husband,” indicating the gay couple, unremarkably amid the other families. Yet it is remarkable. For all the hard work the New Horizons team put in — and the mission was greenlit, then canceled more than once — this little scene is also evidence of progress not just in science but in society. Go, Paul and David!

source:

Chasing New Horizons: inside the epic first mission to Pluto

Alan Stern and David Grinspoon

2018. Picador, New York