The Turing enigma: Campaigners demand pardon for mathematics genius

[IndianaGreen]

Were it not for a gay man named Jonathan, David would have been killed by King Saul. Were it not for a gay man named John, there wouldn't be a "disciple whom Jesus loved" in the Christian Gospels. Were it not for Alan Turing, the ENIGMA code would not have been broken and the Germans would have won the Battle of the Atlantic. Were it not for the gay and lesbians serving in the US armed forces...

The Turing enigma: Campaigners demand pardon for mathematics genius

He should have been hailed a hero for his wartime codebreaking. Instead he was prosecuted for his homosexuality and took his own life. So why has Britain never said sorry? Jonathan Brown reports

Tuesday, 18 August 2009

He may have played a pivotal role in securing victory in the Second World War for his country six years earlier, but few outside the academic community would have recognised Alan Turing as he made his way down Manchester's Oxford Street shortly before Christmas in 1951. Someone who did notice the athletically-built scientist, however, was a young working class gay man called Arnold Murray.

Homosexuality was still illegal under the same repressive laws which had sent Oscar Wilde to jail half a century earlier. But regardless of the risk, the chance encounter was to develop into something more substantial and Murray spent a number of nights at the older man's modest home in suburban Wilmslow.

A month later, after Turing, a veteran of the then still secret Bletchley Park code-cracking team, had been giving a talk to the BBC on his pioneering work on artificial intelligence, he returned home to find his house burgled.

The culprit was an acquaintance of Murray's, who would prey on Murray's lovers, thinking they would be so afraid of being outed that they would not report the thefts to the police.

But Turing defied this convention and went straight to the police, where he admitted his affair – a "crime" for which he was spared the normal two-year jail term in favour of a hormonal treatment designed to beef up his masculine urges and suppress his homosexuality. The resulting publicity was to prove too much to bear and in June 1954, the 41-year-old was found dead in bed by his housekeeper. He had eaten an apple he had laced with poison.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/the-turing-enigma-campaigners-demand-pardon-for-mathematics-genius-1773480.html

[sui generis]

1. lordy once again associating gay men with a lack of masculinity

and therefore weakness. Either way even funnier for it to be a crime for men to not be masculine enough.

Here, take these shots to make you grow hair on your back, kind of like a bear. Oh, so THAT's where the expression comes from :blush:

:P

Girl the bears in my neighborhood have FABULOUS pool parties and sew some wicked drapes.

***

On a more serious note - Turing was an extraordinary person. It is rather odd that even the scientific community would rather gloss over this fact of his life in favor of his achievements, and I suspect there is some of that same thinking going on here.

[Mopar151]

2. Too often, we persecute genius

And worship those who exploit them

[mitchtv]

3. another victim

of a free society

[Toasterlad]

4. He Was Only a Gay! Why Should Anyone Care?

It's not like a REAL person died. Right, President Obama?

[OneBlueSky]

5. "disciple whom Jesus loved" . . .

so whatcha think? . . . was Jesus gay? . . .

well, let's look at the evidence:

- he never married (or even dated) . . .

- he was always hanging out with twelve guys . . .

- he and his buds dressed in skirts (drag) . . .

- he was always talking about "loving your brother" . . .

- he never said a word about homosexuality, either positive or negative . . .

Jesus was a human being, and as such sexuality was part of his psychological makeup . . . seems to me that the possibility of him having been gay is just as probable as the possibility of him having been straight . . . bwdik? . . . :shrug:

[joeybee12]

7. The Secret Gospel of Mark (I believe)...

...one of the gnostic gospels...pretty much was gay if this could ever be verified.

[ruggerson]

6. Shouldn't he be knighted, posthumously?

fuck an apology. He won WW II.

[indigo32]

8. I think he should -nt

[indigo32]

9. I was pleased

to hear Futuretense cover this story this morning on public radio. There definitely should be something done.