Tag: alan turing

The Bank of England has chosen to honor Alan Turing on the £50 note. Alan Turing was a gay mathematician whose theories were highly influential in the development of computer science, and his work during World War II helped Allied forces crack coded Nazi messages and defeat Axis forces, a crucial part in winning the war. After World War II, he was prosecuted because he admitting to having a relationship with another man and was forced to take feminizing hormones. In...

London has been hosting Pride parades since 1972. The event attracts approximately a million people, and is the only annual event to close Oxford Street, one of the busiest streets in the city. Despite the size and popularity of Pride, the United Kingdom has endured a long battle with queer rights. The Offences Against the Person Act 1861 removed the death penalty for homosexuality, yet same-sex acts remained illegal, and were punishable by imprisonment. The police were very strict about laws against...

The government has announced that thousands of gay and bisexual men who were convicted under historic anti-gay laws will be posthumously pardoned. Justice Minister Sam Gyimah today announced the fulfilment of a 2015 Conservative Party manifesto pledge, which will see men convicted for consensual same-sex relationships formally pardoned. Computing hero World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, who was convicted of gross indecency in 1952, was previously granted a one-off posthumous royal pardon in 2013. However, the new law will disregard the offences of thousands of men. Minister Gyimah...

Few natives of other lands know that Russia has its own version of Maxim, the popular men’s magazine.  The Russian publication, in fact, differs greatly from the U.S version, however.  This is best exemplified by their article covering this controversial topic, which is entitled “Gays We Respect.” The list encompasses actors, musicians, comedians, writers and a mathematician, totaling 10 men.  The actors are well known faces with widely publicized “coming out” stories.  Notably we find the charismatic Ian McKellen, and...

The Freedom To Donate campaign and UK artist Conor Collins launched the Awareness Week by displaying a portrait of Alan Turing made from gay men’s blood. The campaign stands for the right of gay men to donate blood, as currently the regulations in England, Wales and Scotland ban men who have sex with men to do so. According Dr. Christian Jessen there is no reason why gay men who want to donate blood must abstain from sex one year before donating:...

Alan Turing is a world famous english mathematician, logician and cryptographer, who was responsible for breaking the Nazi Enigma code during World War II. His work led to the creation of the computer! Turing took his own life in 1954, two years after being confirmed as gay. Homosexuality was still a crime in Great Britain at the time, and Turing was convicted of “indecency.” He died from eating an apple laced with cyanide. He was only 41 years old. But his...