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| Alan Turing |
alan turing is one of the few members of the LGBT community that was mentioned in my school’s history classes. it’s very important to acknowledge, however, that turing’s country did not even vaguely accept his sexuality. in fact, he died whilst in the process of hormone 'therapy', a form of castration that kills the sex drive of an individual, completely, along with many other nasty side effects. it’s a cruel, cruel tactic that will never be justified; the damage is be beyond repair and the 'treatment' inhumane.
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| Turing in his Childhood |
turing was born in 1912 and soon after showed immense mathematical capabilities. after cultivating his natural gifts, he was offered and accepted a scholarship at king's college cambridge, in 1931.
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| The Bombe |
he soon challenged the biggest mathematicians around at the time by disproving some of their theories, and this led him to the invention of his enigma-decoding machine, named the 'Bombe'. (the enigma was a changing code used by nazi germany during world war 2, to send cryptic messages that could only be deciphered by somebody else with the same machine and cypher.)
turing's thinking was extremely influential in the allies' victory over the fascist regime of nazi germany, undoubtedly. it's believed that he saved millions and millions of lives with his invention.
however, his country still didn't welcome turing's sexuality and condemned his openness. in fact, he was persecuted and charged with 'gross indecency' for his homosexuality and was given intense hormone 'therapy' to castrate and prevent him from having sex. he later committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide on the 17th of june, 1954. it’s beyond fucked up that you could once be persecuted simply because of who you are naturally. it’s because of people like turing, who were openly themselves, that i enjoy the rights i have now. it’s important not to forget that. or them.
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| Turing as the face of the £50 note |
after intense pressure from the public, turing was granted a royal pardon by the queen, which doesn't take away from the injustice at all, but is definitely a positive sentiment. he can now be seen on our £50 notes.
thank you for reading about this interesting guy and learning about his life alongside me. he is a veeeerrrry important part of both british history and lgbt history today.
k
xxxx
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