NOTE: Because TSCC has spread so many lies about gays, I some times (usually in June, Pride Month) post some bit of gay history to, hopefully, help RfMers get a more balanced perspective of gays and gay history.

Alan Turing, Considered the father of computer science and artificial intelligence by many, myself included. Turing was also an important code breaker during WWII. "He devised a number of techniques for breaking German ciphers, including the method of the bombe, an electromechanical machine that could find settings for the Enigma machine."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing

Turing's accomplishments should afford him a celebrated place in human history, but it seems he was homosexual.

In 1952 while police were investigating a robbery at his home, Turing acknowledged having a homosexual relationship with one of the suspects. This acknowledgment lead to the arrest and conviction of Turing for gross indecency. Turing chose chemical castration rather than imprisonment. Turing lost his security clearance and the treatment caused him to grow breasts.

On 7 June 1954, Turing ended his life by eating a Snow White apple (poisoned).



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2011 03:28PM by MJ.

The apology given Mr. Turing by the British government was way too little, way too late. He saved Europe, and the way he was thanked? Chemical castration.

His work was too good for them.

Thanks! That was very interesting.

Not just "an important code breaker" but perhpas the single most important code breaker in WW2. A brilliant man who still had much to offer but was shabily treated by the British establishment.

Here are two other homosexuals involved in government service who were "shabily treated by the British establishment."

Anthony Blunt http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Blunt

Guy Burgess http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Burgess

The British government had absolutely no reason to suspect anything negative about "gay" people involved in military intelligence during WWII and the Cold War. They and their Cambridge chums were just out having a bit of a lark, what?

Guess we really are getting a little history we did not learn in church or in school.

and some implicate them in the deaths of a number of people with the information that was stolen and sold to the KGB.

You don't say.....

During the time that being homosexual was illegal, people that were homosexual could easily be blackmailed. Seriously, knowing how GB treated heroes like Turing would cause many homosexuals to do anything to hide their true sexualities even submitting to blackmail.

But nice try at trolling. Yes, both heterosexuals and homosexuals that are caught as spies are treated with contempt.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2011 08:35PM by MJ.

Looks like you need to learn some history, instead of making condescending posts pretending to educate others.

Read the articles. Blunt, Burgess, and others involved in the "Cambridge Five" were not "blackmailed." They volunteered to betray the West, and were well compensated for it, too. But I'm sure you'll find some victimhood in that too.

Troll on, there was no reason to bring those two into this discussion other than to try to say gays do bad things, yes, JUST LIKE HETEROSEXUALS.


And it is likely that nobody know exactly HOW they were recruited, if there was a blackmail component or not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/29/2011 08:53PM by MJ.

Turing should have had a Knighthood at the very least.

Blunt should have been executed or sent to prison for life, the standard punishments for espionage.

Instead, the turncoat became a turncoat again and, in exchange for information about the Soviet spy ring that had functioned in the UK since the 30's, the government agreed not to prosecute. To avoid the immense and shameful scandal this would have brought on the UK - which would have included being cut off from the rest of the Western Nations' intelligence services - the whole affair was covered up until Blunt's death.

Burgess escaped to the USSR and drank himself to death. The USSR was not the Workers' Paradise it advertised itself to be, and Burgess could not return to the UK without facing serious punishment. Blunt had seen to that. But the Sovs did give Burgess a pension and a boyfriend.

Neither Blunt or Burgess got off because they were gay, so what is your point?



BTW, its Magnus.

MJ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Neither Blunt or Burgess got off because they were
> gay, so what is your point?
>
>
>
> BTW, its Magnus.

Unless he had illiterate parents, MJ? ;o))

But, of course, I jest. Well spotted, old chap!

http://www.paperbackswap.com/Perfect-Spy-John-Le-Carre/book/0553264567/

Mangus Pym Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Blunt should have been executed or sent to prison
> for life, the standard punishments for espionage.

Not in Britain, except for during wartime.

I was really suprised to learn how many Hollywood Golden Age actors/actresses were gay and lesbian or bisexual.

Greta Garbo, Marlene Deitrich, Judy Garland, Barbara Stanwyck carried on affairs with lesbian while a few lived in lavender marriages. Laurence Olivier was in a couple of lavender marriges if I'm remembering correctly

So much for "the good old days" when men were men myth.

I would be interested in the history regarding homosexual relationships in the Salt Lake City area? Do you happen to have any information about how homosexuals, in the greatest generation and earlier, practiced their homosexuality in the Mormon culture? Best wishes.

http://www.connellodonovan.com/abom.html

It is a lot to much through, so I haven't actually gotten very far and don't know how good or relevant it is.

Thanks, I'll check it out

Michael Quinn wrote an excellent book about same-sex relationships in Mormonism:

Same-Sex Dynamics among Nineteenth-Century Americans: A MORMON EXAMPLE by D. Michael Quinn

It's available at Amazon.com

I never learned anything about Alan Turing other than "Turing machines" which I learned about in a theoretical math class. They said absolutely nothing about the man in any class I took. However, I learned quite a bit about Charles Babbage.

It was surprising to me to learn about his life many years later on Wikipedia. I guess that wasn't worth mentioning at the University level.

For some 2011 mormon, anti-gay activity, see one of the other threads currently active:

http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,205891