Sorry to break it to you, but lesbians aren’t responsible for 100% of all space crime

Sorry, folks, the old adage “be gay, do crime” doesn’t apply to space just yet, despite claims that a lesbian astronaut committed the first off-world felony.

Claims that lesbian NASA astronaut Anne McClain was the first to commit a crime in space have resurfaced following after an online meme joked that lesbians are responsible for “100 per cent of all space crime.”

The post that highlighted the story first appeared on X/Twitter, and has since circulated across the internet, particularly on Reddit.

However, the post doesn’t tell the full story. While we’re living for the day that lesbian space pirates become a reality, we’re not quite there yet.

During a six-month mission on the International Space Sation in 2019, McClain was accused of improperly accessing her ex-wife Summer Worden’s bank account

The New York Times reported at the time that Worden had filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission accusing the out gay astronaut, whom she divorced in the same year, of identity theft and improper access of her finances. It was widely reported as the first potential crime committed from space.

McClain strongly denied the charges, with her lawyer saying that she was using a login that Worden had shared with her to check on her intertwined family finances.

“She strenuously denies that she did anything improper,” her lawyer, Rusty Hardin, said at the time, adding that she is “totally cooperating” with investigating officers.

McClain wrote on X/Twitter at the time that the couple had 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,” she continued.

Accusations against McClain were ‘false‘

Almost a year later, Worden was indicted over the false accusations after the Department of Justice alleged that she had made factually incorrect statements to NASA’s oversight agency, the Office of Inspector General (OIG), and the FTC by falsely claiming to have changed her login details to prevent McClain from using her bank account.

“She claimed she had opened a new account in September 2018 and reset her login credentials in order to prevent the individual from accessing her accounts,” the unsealed indictment reads.

The account in question was reportedly opened in April 2018, before the couple had split. Furthermore, Worden had not changed her login details until after the incident in question.

The incident inadvertently outed McClain, who was not out as a lesbian at the time. She is the third LGBTQ+ astronaut to enter space after Sally Ride and Wendy B Lawrence.