Hi there,

Nineteen people received the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Friday, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi and LGBTQ+ rights advocate Judy Shepard. Jane Rigby also received one. But who exactly is the lauded scientist? 🔭

🪐 Rigby is a lesbian and is a civil servant astrophysicist at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, as well as the senior project scientist at the James Webb Space Telescope, the most powerful telescope in the world. She has also done extensive data research for the Keck and Magellan Observatories and the Hubble Space Telescope.

🌈 Sherry Cola recently partnered with GLAAD for a special campaign all about empowering LGBTQ+ youth called #ProtectThisKid. The campaign aims to highlight the crucial fact that queer youth will eventually become queer adults and that their rights should not be dependent on their ages.

“Queerness is something that society has brainwashed us into thinking we shouldn't embrace,” Cola told The AdvocateThe Advocate. “I hope that this creates a ripple effect and shows all the LGBTQ youth that you should be proud of who you are. And I see it – the future is bright.” 🌈

Onward and upward,

Alex Cooper