Skip to main content

Los Alamos Lab Flying LGBTQ Flag For First Time


By Rebecca Moss | rmoss@sfnewmexican.com Jun 11, 2019 Updated Jun 12, 2019

At 19, Samuel Buelow felt he had to leave Los Alamos to be himself.

He had grown up as a girl in the insular, scientific community that felt deeply conservative in the late 1990s and early 2000s. After moving to Pittsburgh for college, Buelow came out as a transgender, gay man.

“It was definitely something, at the time, I felt I couldn’t have done living here full time,” Buelow said of Los Alamos. “There was very little awareness of these issues in general. And when there was, it was surrounded by some pretty intense homophobia and transphobia.”

That was then.

This … is a town sporting different colors.

On Monday, a rainbow flag was raised for the first time in front of the Otowi Building on the Los Alamos National Laboratory campus, flapping alongside the U.S. and New Mexico banners. Lab officials said it will fly for the remainder of the week.

It was another sign of change at the lab, which in previous years has undertaken different pride representations, including decorating the windows of a prominent building with rainbow-colored Post-it Notes in 2017.

CJ Bacino, the laboratory’s diversity officer, said a Los Alamos lab LGBTQ staff and allies group called Prism brought forward the idea of raising the flag this year to help mark Pride Week in Los Alamos County.

https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/los-alamos-lab-flying-lgbtq-flag-for-first-time/article_737d847e-8645-5455-8d96-15bcec7f3764.html

Comments

Anonymous said…

One thing that has certainly changed from Triad from LANS is the attitude toward the workforce. There is more talk that the strength of the lab is the people. During LANS nothing like this was ever said.
Anonymous said…
"One thing that has certainly changed from Triad from LANS is the attitude toward the workforce. There is more talk that the strength of the lab is the people. During LANS nothing like this was ever said."

This is a great start, but it is only a PR talking point until the concept is load tested by real workforce criticism of the contractor for failure to follow through on the talking point. Perhaps Triad will walk the talk. If they do, Triad should be credited for doing so!

"To know who rules over you, simply find out who you are not allowed to criticise."
-Voltaire
Anonymous said…
I'd be really cautious thinking Triad will be better. Mason is from the ORNL culture, where you either help row the boat in the direction management wants or you're a swimmer. And they shoot swimmers.
Anonymous said…
"Mason is from the ORNL culture, where you either help row the boat in the direction management wants or you're a swimmer. And they shoot swimmers."

I have interacted with ORNL for many years and I have never heard of such a thing, in fact people seem very happy there including several people who left LANL to go to ORNL who have said it is much better. They also had a very high opinion of Mason.

I simply find your comment to be very odd.
Anonymous said…
Wait, people leaving LANL for ORNL? I thought people leave LANL for lucrative jobs in Silicon Valley?
Anonymous said…
Mason is clueless, but not vicious. LANS management was both. Prior to the reign of Nanos, LANL/LASL management was neither.
Anonymous said…
"Mason is from the ORNL culture, where you either help row the boat in the direction management wants or you're a swimer. And they shoot swimmers."
.

With LANS you are either in management or your are not in management. They shoot non management.

Anonymous said…

"Wait, people leaving LANL for ORNL? I thought people leave LANL for lucrative jobs in Silicon Valley?

6/21/2019 9:04 PM"

Indeed many people have left LANL for Silicon Valley, ORNL, ANL, BNL, LLNL, SLAC, academic positions and so on. Just before LANS and
during LANS there has been a huge loss of talent. If you work at LANL you would know this and the names of the people. I guess you have been out of the lab for some time which is fine but yes LANL people are very mobile particularly the top talent.
Anonymous said…
"Mason is clueless, but not vicious. LANS management was both. Prior to the reign of Nanos, LANL/LASL management was neither.

6/21/2019 10:08 PM"

Mason is certainly not vicious, I am not sure that he is clueless either but we will have to wait and see.

Anonymous said…
"Wait, people leaving LANL for ORNL? I thought people leave LANL for lucrative jobs in Silicon Valley?"

I know people that have left for high tech jobs in the Bay area and elsewhere along with numerous people that have left for ORNL. What ever gave you the idea that LANL people are only leaving for high industry jobs?
Anonymous said…


But, I thought no one at LANL could ever get another job after LANL. Look at me, no one will hire me because I used to work at LANL. Now don't come at me with the same old "it might be a problem with you and not LANL" nonsense. I refuse to believe that and so should all of you.
Anonymous said…
“What ever gave you the idea...”, “If you work at LANL you would know...” “I guess you have been out of the lab for some time”.

I love the tone! Very convincing. I think they call that being “didactic”. Couldn’t care less about what people on the hill do, by the way.
Anonymous said…
"Couldn’t care less about what people on the hill do, by the way."

So that is way you have been posting about your opinion of LANL for years and years now? It is kind of obvious by now that you some
issues.
Anonymous said…
6/25/2019 12:22 AM

Yes I have issues with LANL, they think they are so great, the people that work that think they are good enough to get a job in the real world. Talk about entitlement. But I still couldn't care less about these people.
Anonymous said…
It is kind of obvious by now that you some issues.

6/25/2019 12:22 AM

It is kind of obvious that you have no clue what you are writing.
Anonymous said…
Now that LANL is out of the closet, when will LLNL and SNLA follow?
Anonymous said…
Now that LANL is out of the closet, when will LLNL and SNLA follow?

6/28/2019 2:55 PM

SNLA has always been out and about. They are sort of the Liberace of the labs so to speak. LLNL however is in denial and needs to come to terms with itself.
Anonymous said…

LANL is the Tom Cruz of the of labs, Sandia is the Elton John and LLNL the Keven Spacey.
Anonymous said…
If that means crazy, rock star, and pervert I agree with the first and second and take except to the third. LANL has much more harassment than LLNL. If you are talking about LANL being in the closet, I strongly disagree. Many proud people at the Lab and the community, at least on the hill celebrates the diversity.
Anonymous said…
Many proud people at the Lab and the community, at least on the hill celebrates the diversity.

7/02/2019 5:55 PM

I was taught that "pride" was one of the seven deadly sins. Who changed the sins?

Popular posts from this blog

Plutonium Shots on NIF.

Tri-Valley Cares needs to be on this if they aren't already. We need to make sure that NNSA and LLNL does not make good on promises to pursue such stupid ideas as doing Plutonium experiments on NIF. The stupidity arises from the fact that a huge population is placed at risk in the short and long term. Why do this kind of experiment in a heavily populated area? Only a moron would push that kind of imbecile area. Do it somewhere else in the god forsaken hills of Los Alamos. Why should the communities in the Bay Area be subjected to such increased risk just because the lab's NIF has failed twice and is trying the Hail Mary pass of doing an SNM experiment just to justify their existence? Those Laser EoS techniques and the people analyzing the raw data are all just BAD anyways. You know what comes next after they do the experiment. They'll figure out that they need larger samples. More risk for the local population. Stop this imbecilic pursuit. They wan...

Trump is to gut the labs.

The budget has a 20% decrease to DOE office of science, 20% cut to NIH. NASA also gets a cut. This will  have a huge negative effect on the lab. Crazy, juts crazy. He also wants to cut NEA and PBS, this may not seem like  a big deal but they get very little money and do great things.

LLNL un-diversity

Actual post from Dec. 15 from one of the streams. This is a real topic. As far as promoting women and minorities even if their qualifications are not as good as the white male scientists, I am all for it. We need diversity at the lab and if that is what it takes, so be it.  Quit your whining. Look around the lab, what do you see? White male geezers. How many African Americans do you see at the lab? Virtually none. LLNL is one of the MOST undiverse places you will see. Face it folks, LLNL is an institution of white male privilege and they don't want to give up their privileged positions. California, a state of majority Hispanics has the "crown jewel" LLNL nestled in the middle of it with very FEW Hispanics at all!