Ancient Wanderer

[luckyfirerabbit]

REASONS TO READ THE BURNING KINGDOMS TRILOGY BY TASHA SURI

Top tier S. Asia fantasy and political, imperial intrigue, Eldritch horror

SO. MANY. WOMEN.

Be Gay, do crimes

Supporting women's rights but also supporting SO many women's wrongs

So much Gay Pain (affectionate) it makes you wanna chew drywall

Pathetic, golden retriever men

No one can kill them in a way that matters, not even each other

JUST GO READ THESE PLEASE

[ancient-wanderer]

I want to read this book! And I love, though it’s sad, those are the words Deke told her back in ‘74. Clearly it stayed with her for decades.. and then to title her memoirs that… wow.

Another thing of note watching the intro of season 5… it’s like Ellen is the only big wig from NASA whose reputation didn’t go down in flames. You know what that means? Yeah. More lesbians should be in charge.

[ancient-wanderer]

Eight years after she walked away, Pam watches Ellen Wilson begin her climb to the White House. She knows she made the right choice. That doesn’t mean it stopped hurting.

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: For All Mankind (TV 2019) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Pam Horton/Ellen Waverly Characters: Pam Horton, Ellen Waverly Additional Tags: Post-Break Up, 1991, Longing, Memory as Foreplay, Bittersweet, Pam actually has a good life, but also she’s not over it, Canon Compliant 

[ancient-wanderer]

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: For All Mankind (TV 2019) Rating: General Audiences Relationships: Pam Horton/Ellen Waverly Characters: Ellen Waverly, Pam Horton, Original Characters, Jordan, Maya, Carson, Kevin Additional Tags: political fiction, Canon Lesbian Relationship, Diplomacy, behind the scenes politics, President Ellen Wilson, The Wilson Administration, Visibility, LGBTQ Visibility, unprecedented Series: Part 2 of Unprecedented Summary:

Reelected and openly gay, President Ellen Wilson has faced history at home. Now, when a conservative foreign delegation arrives expecting her partner to step aside, can the United States stand firm?

[ancient-wanderer]

Why Ellen Wilson Would Be a Republican—And How She Changed the GOP in For All Mankind

I admit, I am new to the world of For All Mankind, but having browsed episode and character discussions on various platforms, I've noticed people love to dunk on Ellen Wilson for being a Republican and/or for the Republican Party to reelect an openly gay president. And yeah, if you're looking at that through the lens of today's GOP, it sounds absurd. But that reaction misses two key things: what the Republican Party actually looked like in the early ’90s before Newt Gingrich and the 'Republican Revolution' and how Ellen herself reshapes the party in FAM’s alternate history.

Disclaimer: I feel like I need to preface all this and state I am not a Republican and do not endorse any shenanigans in the current makeup of the GOP.

So in many ways, Ellen's political outlook owes a debt to someone you might not expect: Richard Nixon. In FAM's alternate history, Nixon isn’t just the scandal-plagued figure we know. He’s the president who expanded the space program after the Soviets landed a woman on the Moon, opening the astronaut corps to women like Ellen. Not out of idealism, but out of strategy. He saw progress as a weapon in the Cold War—and that choice, cynical or not, changed her life. That’s why a portrait of Nixon hangs in her Oval Office. Not as an endorsement of his character, but as a recognition of how power, when used strategically, can reshape institutions. She doesn’t have to like him to understand the door he opened. In her own way, she learns to do the same.

But it wasn’t until her time behind the scenes at NASA, under the mentorship of Tom Paine, that she learned how to walk through that door and keep it open. Tom who was part visionary, part political operator taught her that lasting progress doesn’t come from idealism alone. It comes from knowing when to compromise, when to push and when to play the long game. That’s where her political spine was forged. Not in ideology, but in the art of preserving the mission.

Because for her, progress isn’t just about being right. It’s about doing the hard, unpopular thing that makes the country stronger in the long run.

At the beginning of Season 2, Ellen is already frustrated. “We’re five years into the Mars program and already ten years behind schedule." Even in a world where space remains a national priority, NASA is still hamstrung by politics, budgets and bureaucracy. That urgency fueled her leadership. She didn’t just keep the agency afloat after the loss of Tom, she transformed it. She made hard calls, like recommending arming Pathfinder, not because she wanted to militarize space, but because she knew it was the only way to keep NASA independent. If she hadn’t, the Department of Defense would’ve swallowed it whole.

That decision bought NASA the political capital it needed to protect its budget, assert its strategic value and fund bold long-term projects without becoming a pawn. That legacy, of protecting NASA’s autonomy and aligning it with American strength, made Mars possible. Everything Ellen did at NASA was in service to that bigger vision: expanding the agency’s reach, and with it, humanity’s.

And that vision didn’t stop when she left NASA. In fact, it’s what pulled her into politics in the first place. She didn’t run for Senate in ’86 because she was eager to legislate, she did it because she knew that if Mars was ever going to happen, someone like her needed a seat at the table where the budgets and decisions were made.

And yes, she’s a lesbian. Which makes some people ask: why not do all this as a Democrat? But that question misses the political reality of her time. In the ’80s and ’90s, Democrats supported NASA in principle but often prioritized domestic issues like healthcare, education and welfare over costly space programs. They weren’t going to make Mars a national priority. Ellen understood that if she wanted to keep space at the center of the national agenda, she had to align herself with the party more likely to fund bold, high-cost initiatives tied to American strength and global leadership. At that time, that meant the Republicans, whether she liked it or not.

And let's not forget, the Republican party had a big tent. Ellen's style was steady, institutional and pragmatic. Her politics line up more with the old Rockefeller Republicans who are fiscally conservative but socially and environmentally moderate, driven by competence and service, not culture wars.

She’s measured, technocratic and mission-driven. When she discusses VP picks, she considers John McCain: fiscally conservative, socially moderate and a war hero. She wants someone competent, someone who reflects her own belief in duty and service. Larry is the one that pushes her toward Jim Bragg—someone that excites the base. Ellen’s response? “Are we sure we want someone that far right on the ticket?”

But she’s not naïve. She understands what she has to do to win. She chooses Bragg reluctantly, but strategically. And while she’s not above letting others do the dirty work, she’s calculating when she needs to be.

So, in 1992 she is elected and in 1993 is sworn in as America's 41st President. And that's another huge alternate path. In our timeline, Newt Gingrich takes over the party in ‘94 as Speaker of the House and steers it into a new era of outrage politics. But in For All Mankind, Ellen is president by then. She’s the face of the party, not Gingrich. That doesn’t mean the Braggs and Gingrichs go away—Larry even complains about the heat they’re getting from Newt during her first term—but they never take the wheel. Ellen’s leadership delays, maybe even derails, the GOP’s hard-right turn. The party doesn’t exactly become progressive, but it stays institutional, pragmatic and focused on governance instead of grievance. And that matters.

And then, in 1995, she comes out. And that's when Ellen truly reshapes the GOP.

It doesn’t happen in a sweeping, feel-good moment. It’s messy, divisive, and politically costly. The conservative wing of the party turns on her almost overnight. Her vice president, whom she once chose to appease the base, now positions himself as her chief critic. There are calls for her resignation. Some push for impeachment. She loses allies she once counted on.

But she doesn’t back down.

And in doing so, she forces her party—and the nation—to grapple with a version of queerness that doesn’t fit into familiar narratives. She isn’t a radical activist or a tragic victim. She’s a sitting president. A former astronaut. A symbol of American excellence. And now, openly, a lesbian.

That choice could have ended her presidency. It very nearly did. But the country didn’t turn away from her—not completely. And that wasn’t just because of Ellen’s own composure or record or allies. It was because, long before she ever stepped into the Oval Office, the ground had already started to shift.

In For All Mankind’s alternate history, the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment in 1974 wasn’t a symbolic gesture. It was a constitutional reorientation and a redefinition of what equality meant in law and in life. That one shift sends ripples through every institution in American life—from education to labor to politics. By the 1990s, there’s an entire generation of women, and men, who came of age with gender equality enshrined in the Constitution. The cultural conversation has moved, even if the party hasn’t fully caught up. Ellen doesn’t have to convince the entire country she belongs in office—just enough of it.

The ERA made Americans ask harder questions: If the law guarantees that men and women must be treated equally, what does that mean for marriage? For family? For who gets to serve, lead, and love in public? Once equality is codified on the basis of sex, it becomes much harder to justify discrimination based on sexual orientation. Why can a man marry a woman, but a woman can’t marry a woman? Why can a straight woman lead the country, but a lesbian can’t?

It didn’t end homophobia, but it planted the seeds for a broader, more inclusive understanding of what equality actually requires. By the 1990s, those seeds had taken root. Not everywhere, and not easily—but enough.

So when Ellen comes out in 1995, the backlash is real. But so is the support. There’s a generation of voters who grew up believing that fairness isn’t just aspirational—it’s constitutional. And when they see Ellen Wilson, they don’t just see a gay woman. They see a veteran of the space program, a steady leader, a president who has already proven her worth. Her identity doesn’t erase that—it coexists with it.

Voters, even Republican ones, are able to look at Ellen’s record and choose competence over fear. Stability over scandal. The mission over the noise.

And the fact that she does win reelection changes everything. Because now the first openly gay president isn’t a fluke or a scandal—she’s a two-term leader. And she’s a Republican.

Ellen doesn’t drag the GOP leftward so much as force it to reckon with its own contradictions. Can you be pro-family and anti-Ellen Wilson? Can you praise duty, courage, and sacrifice, and still claim she’s unfit to lead? Her very presence creates friction—but also possibility. She proves that you don’t have to abandon tradition to embrace inclusion. That strength and identity aren’t in conflict.

Her presidency doesn’t erase the culture wars. The Braggs and Gingriches are still there, waiting in the wings. But for a brief, critical window in the 1990s, Ellen Wilson holds the center. She keeps the Republican Party institutional, not insurgent. Mission-driven, not grievance-driven. She reminds the country what steady leadership looks like—and what real representation can mean.

So yes, Ellen Wilson is a Republican. And that’s exactly why her presidency matters. Her presidency didn’t fix the party or make it safe for people like her overnight. It was compromise after compromise, a constant negotiation between what she believed and what she could say out loud. But in For All Mankind’s alternate history, she stopped the GOP from becoming what it is in our timeline. And that’s no small thing.

[ancient-wanderer]

[ancient-wanderer]

Having just watched this show twice in a week, I am absolutely obsessed with these two and wonder what their life was like before Deadloch.

Cath, like many characters on Deadloch, have many annoying characteristics but I was truly blown away by the majority of people presumably hating her ass?!?

Like once it’s revealed that she’s the victim of infidelity, sooooo much of her behavior makes sense. Like, she doesn’t do any thing to purposely punish Dulce or make her pay for anything. It all stems from a shit ton of trauma and fear and insecurity. And bless her heart, Cath knows it’s her burden to bare and fix and control and she’s trying but she’s only human and as she is able to express, certain things trigger her.

Especially finding out that Dulcie’s new partner is a woman. Dulce doesn’t even try to take Cath’s very reasonable feelings into account. I get she’s in the middle of a murder investigation, but that’s honestly a sad ass excuse to not be up front and honest with your wife on a topic you know she would be sensitive about.

The fight between them in the police station was such a great scene. Neither party was wrong in my opinion. And it was good to see Dulce finally voice her own opinion about things. She’s allowed herself to be on the sidelines of her own life and it wasn’t fair to either of them.

And I also really appreciate the show not succumbing to tropes and having them break up and Dulce go off with Eddie. There's already been a story about two people finding companionship and affection with each other in the midst of a stressful job and investigation. It was the called the Dulcie Collins and Hannah Chambers show and it didn't last and this is the aftermath of that story.

I'm also so very curious what type of lawyer Cath was. Was she a criminal attorney? Was she a prosecutor? Defense attorney? Or, like, tax law or something? What lead Dulce to stray? Did Cath give up her career as a lawyer (as Dulce gave up detective work) in this compromise of starting over?

Hopefully we learn more about them and their past in season 2. But anyway, as a 40 something year old married lesbian, it was just wonderful to see these quirky, dysfunctional yet loving 40 something year old married lesbians in this phenomenal show.

[ancient-wanderer]

Ellen reacting to Jim Bragg quoting her own 1974 speech back at her gives me pause and makes me think... Can't quite put it into words though.

[jumpingpuddles]

Farscape: Aeryn Sun in every episode — Family Ties

[ancient-wanderer]

Does anyone else think about the conversation President Wilson and Major Will Tyler had when he returned to Earth and she bestowed the presidential medal of freedom on him?

I wonder how that convo went. Maybe Sally Ride was in attendance and they had a gay astronaut shindig

[anyas-bunnies]

jamie taylor the woman you ARE.

[ancient-wanderer]

I call this series:

Ellen Reacts to Larry Without a Filter

[ancient-wanderer]

I'm saddened that the FAM world was deprived of a Wayne/Karen/Pam astro wife club

I can really see those 3 hitting it off

[ancient-wanderer]

Chapters: 1/? Fandom: For All Mankind (TV 2019) Rating: Mature Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Pam Horton/Ellen Waverly, Ellen Waverly & Larry Wilson Characters: Ellen Waverly, Larry Wilson, Pam Horton, Original Characters Additional Tags: Family Drama, Coming Out, Post-Canon, Character Study, Canon Lesbian Character, Canon Gay Character, Family Dynamics Summary:

Ellen Wilson’s public coming out has thrown her family into turmoil. Set against the backdrop of the Presidential retreat at Camp David, this family drama explores generational divides, shifting loyalties, and the complex legacies of the Waverly and Wilson families as they confront truth, identity, and the changing tides of their relationships.

[ancient-wanderer]

The look in Pam's eyes here.... My god, it speaks to me. She is so in love. And she is tip toeing around this feeling.

She doesn't want to scare off Ellen, so she wraps up this feeling into an idea of being different when they're with each other and asks her if it scares her and holy shit, it doesn't! Ellen doesn't even hesitate to say it doesn't scare her.

I think it's the first time she's thinking to herself, "oh my god, I think she actually loves me too!"

So on the brink of this relationship going off the rails, she's got nothing left to save it for and she tells Ellen she loves her. And what does she get in response? Nervous vacant eyes from a woman shutting down emotionally in a very public place.

You think that's tough enough when you put your heart out there, but then...

When she finally hears Ellen say it…

She says it to her fucking beard on national television.

See, she never got to hear Ellen say how she’s in love with her too.

No, that admission died with Deke.

Pam put her heart on the line, gave Ellen four of the best years of her life and within an instant it was gone. One conversation over a bar and her whole life derailed. She put it all out there and Ellen left her hanging.

It’s no wonder it took her a long time to write about it. A love that could destroy you that you’d (obviously) fall right back into again.

Sometimes I can’t help but shake my head at Ellen. Not mad at her, per se, but utterly heart broken on Pam’s behalf.

As much as Ellen’s heart stopped for those ten years, I don’t think she ever really understood the pain she put Pam through. The rejection.

Well, of course, until it sadly came back around and bit her in the ass for the next 12 years.

[heartbreakincident]

nothing but respect for our troops (smut writers) but listen. i dont want to be the person to tell you this, but not every character is going to be a dom or a sub. some people. and i know this is hard to hear. but some people do have vanilla sex. and some of those people might even be The Character.

[heartbreakincident]

most correct addition so far

[marxism-ex-silium]

So glad I get to experience homosexual desire. One life and thank god I'm not straight