Creative 2nd Place

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’.

Mackenzie Calle is a creative documentary photographer and filmmaker based in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, ICP’s Documentary Practice and Visual Journalism program, and was a member of Eddie Adams Workshop class XXXV. She is the recipient of the Magnum Foundation Counter Histories grant, LensCulture Emerging Talent Award, and the Dear Dave Fellowship.

Her clients include National Geographic, The Washington Post, GAYLETTER, Discovery, MSNBC, and The Wall Street Journal.