Gay Person of the Month: Alan Turing

Alan Turing (1912-1954) was an English mathematician, scientist and cryptographer best known as in inventor of the Universal Turing Machine. His work was critical in the later development of the modern computer as we know today. During World War II, he lived in Bletchley Park doing cryptanalysis work, where his work with the Enigma was indispensable. Additionally, he also created the Turing Test, and his paper "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" published in Mind in 1950 which discussed the possibility of artificial intelligence and thinking machines, is one of the best known and most highly regarded papers on the subject even today.

He had at least discovered he was gay by the time he was eighteen since he developed feelings for a slightly older boy in high school, although the boy, Christopher, soon died.

During the war, he was saved from persecution because of his homosexuality because he talents were so essential to the war efforts. After the war, however, when he reported a break-in to the police, he admitted to have been sexually active with a man, Charles Murray, who had actually assisted with the break-in. Instead of being sent to prison, he elected to receive female hormones (a sort of castration designed to cure him of his homosexuality), since homosexuality was in illegal in the UK in 1952. His security clearance was also stripped, as it was believed that homosexuality was associated with communists.

In 1954, he died of cyanide poisoning. A partially eaten apple was found next to him, and there is some speculation that the apple itself contained the cyanide. While his family refused to believe that he had committed suicide, thinking instead that the apple had become accidentally poisoned because some chemicals he used were stored poorly. Still, one of his favorite fairy tales was Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and the apple left near him is reminiscent of the way the Queen tried to kill Snow White.

In 2009, Gordon Brown officially apologized for the treatment Turing received post-war. The apology came after a petition signed by 30,000 people went forward asking for an official apology. A statue of him was unveiled in 2001, and his status as one of the most influential people during the war has been recognized. Even more recently, he was featured in a series of stamps which featured "twelve Britons of distinction." He was denied a posthumous pardon, however, because, according to the British government, what he did at the time was illegal, and he knew it was illegal, even though the laws were incredibly cruel and inhumane.