NASA astronaut and Army Lieutenant Colonel Anne McClain could be the first woman on the Moon, reported Stars and Stripes last Thursday—one day before an accusation from McClain’s estranged spouse made headlines about a “crime in space.” Behind the headlines, though, is the specter of the question: “Who’s a parent?”
McClain, an attack helicopter pilot with 800 combat hours and advanced degrees in aerospace engineering and international relations, according to her NASA biography, most recently served as flight engineer on the International Space Station—where she made headlines earlier this year when NASA didn’t have enough medium-sized spacesuits for her to do a spacewalk with another woman on the mission, thus scrapping what would have been the first all-female spacewalk.
Now, she’s embroiled in a nasty divorce battle with Summer Worden, a former Air Force intelligence officer, reports the New York Times. According to the paper, Worden had a one-year-old son when the two of them met. The women married in 2014. McClain provided financial support and seems to have treated the boy as her own, as in this Today interview. She wanted to adopt the boy, but Worden refused, even after they were married. McClain even did an adorable NASA photo shoot with the boy, but after Business Insider ran a piece on it, Worden contacted the publication to inform them “she is the biological mother and sole legal parent/guardian.”
Last year, McClain asked a local court to “legally validate my established and deep parental relationship,” claiming that Worden “had an explosive temper and was making poor financial decisions,” said the NYT. Worden then filed for divorce after McClain accused her of assault, which Worden says was just part of McClain’s attempt to get control of the child. The assault case was later dismissed.
Now, Worden is claiming that McClain committed identity theft and improperly accessed Worden’s bank account from the International Space Station. She filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission and her family did so with NASA’s Office of Inspector General, leading to many headlines over the weekend about the first “crime in space.” McClain’s lawyer told the NYT that McClain was just trying “to make sure that there were sufficient funds in Ms. Worden’s account to pay bills and care for the child they had been raising.” She “continued using the password that she had used previously and never heard from Ms. Worden that the account was now off limits.”
McClain tweeted Saturday, “There’s unequivocally no truth to these claims. We’ve been going through a painful, personal separation that’s now unfortunately in the media. I appreciate the outpouring of support and will reserve comment until after the investigation. I have total confidence in the IG [NASA Inspector General] process.”
There’s unequivocally no truth to these claims. We’ve been going through a painful, personal separation that’s now unfortunately in the media. I appreciate the outpouring of support and will reserve comment until after the investigation. I have total confidence in the IG process.
— Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) August 24, 2019
Space.com, in its coverage, made an interesting observation, however, noting, “McClain was not publicly out in official NASA communications, although some gay media outlets have followed her career and identified her as lesbian. She is now—albeit involuntarily—the first publicly out astronaut.” (Sally Ride, the first American woman in space, was not out during her lifetime.) Whether McClain preferred to be closeted in NASA publicity or NASA requested that she be so, fear of social stigma on someone’s part was still controlling the situation. That meant that when McClain did photo shoots with the boy or pieces like this Today feature on astronauts and parenting, Worden was completely invisible. Even if Worden had acknowledged McClain as a full parent, the fact that the media treated McClain as the only one must have been difficult for Worden, though whether this contributed to Worden’s behavior is an open question. I don’t see that it could have helped. That’s not an excuse, no matter who is to blame; just an observation of how homophobia may negatively impact queer families.
Divorce and separation are never easy; I can only imagine that being in the public eye while doing so makes it worse. Whatever the truth may be, I wish all the best for the boy and his family.
