Alan Turing was a wartime codebreaker and mathematician whose life changed the outcome of the Second World War – and whose death influenced the lives of gay men everywhere.
Turing was a genius computer scientist. His efforts to crack Nazi codes shortened the war in Europe by at least two years and saved millions of lives.
But his achievements were quickly forgotten when in 1952, he was prosecuted for ‘homosexual acts’. His conviction meant he lost his security clearance and couldn’t continue the work that had proved so vital to the Allies in the war.
Turing accepted chemical castration as an alternative to being sent to jail but died two years later from cyanide poisoning in what was likely a suicide.
In 2017, the UK passed new legislation that retroactively pardoned all gay men convicted of homosexual acts under those historical laws. That pardoning became known as the Alan Turing law.
Alan Turing’s portrait today graces the front of the English £50 banknote, and his story is told in television and film. He was portrayed by Benedict Cumberbatch in 2014 war drama The Imitation Game.
It is an acknowledgement that the vile treatment of Turing should never be repeated but sadly too late for the man himself who was forced to die in shame.
His name lives on as an example of what gay men fight for – the right to be yourself.
Faggot Forefathers
This series highlights the lives of historically significant gay men and their contributions to our world.
Men have been fucking each other since time immemorial. Sons, brothers, fathers, soldiers, slaves.
Throughout history, our forefathers have faced persecution at every turn in pursuit of that animalistic – and natural – need to fuck their fellow man.
We should remember those who came before us.
Got a suggestion of someone we should be featuring? Email tommy@treasureislandmedia.com.
Image © National Portrait Gallery, London shared cropped here under Creative Commons licence.
Further reading: Wikipedia – Alan Turing
