Alan Turing was gay!
Submitted by brian s hall on 16 January, 2012 - 16:47
Alan Turing was a...
- a) Englishman
- b) WW2 codebreaker
- c) war hero
- d) computer pioneer
- e) gay
Trick question! He was all of the above!
And despite A-D, back in England in 1952, being E was a crime.
Dangerous Minds is helping to drum up support to get Turing's conviction for being gay overturned.
Turing was a central figure in the development of the computer. In 1936, he proposed a theoretical “Universal Machine”, which could carry out any calculation by following a stored program. He was also an essential part to Britain’s victory in the Second World War through his work at Bletchley Park, where he turned his “Universal machine” into a working computer. After the war, he intended to manufacture his machine as the first general purpose computer. He also pondered the question of a computer’s ability to think for itself, and proposed the Turing test as a way of measuring a computer’s intelligence.
Yet, for all his hard work for the state, he was shown no leniency when arrested in 1952 for admitting to sexual acts with a man. Homosexuality was illegal in England at this time, but Turing had no fear or shame over who he was. As the police noted when Turing gave his confession: “He was a real convert…he really believed he was doing the right thing.”
This year marks the 100th anniversary of Turing’s birth and it is now time to clear his name of the terrible injustice that was meted out to him, and other gay men. You can sign the petition here.