January 20, 2012

Gay WWII Codebreaker To Be Celebrated on Stamp →

projectqueer:

By Winston Gieseke

ALAN TURING 02 X390 (FAIR USE) | ADVOCATE.COM
Alan Turing  

A gay computer pioneer whose skills helped the Allies decrypt Nazi codes during World War II will be celebrated on a postage stamp in the U.K.

Alan Turing, who worked at the U.K.’s main decryption establishment during the war, invented the Turing machine, which helped decipher German messages intercepted by the Allies. Despite his considerable contribution to the war effort, he was prosecuted by the British government in 1952 for being gay and forced to endure a chemical castration. Two years later, at age 41, he committed suicide.

In 2009, Turing was granted an apology by U.K. prime minister Gordon Brown after more than 30,000 people signed a petition on the prime minister’s website urging the government to “recognize the tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man’s life and career.”

“While Turing was dealt with under the law of the time,” Brown wrote in response, “and we can’t put the clock back, his treatment was of course utterly unfair, and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. … It is no exaggeration to say that, without his outstanding contribution, the history of WWII could well have been very different.”

The stamp featuring Turing will be part of the “Britons of Distinction” series.

Read more here.

12:28 am • 124 notes • via Deep into that darkness peering

Notes

  1. jukeboxhound reblogged this from pansexualpride
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  7. callthepoliceidgaf reblogged this from pansexualpride and added:
    Oh man. I need these stamps
  8. ticklemefreak reblogged this from pansexualpride
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  13. foreverisinyoureyes reblogged this from pansexualpride
  14. pansexualpride reblogged this from eyeofmantorok
  15. tal9000 reblogged this from 77825225672443 and added:
    Wow! It’s only how many decades after he was driven to suicide by the injustice he lived under?
  16. 77825225672443 reblogged this from eyeofmantorok
  17. qscc reblogged this from eyeofmantorok
  18. lgbtrc reblogged this from projectqueer
  19. lesbionictonic reblogged this from themasterscompanion
  20. lazorbeamz reblogged this from themasterscompanion and added:
    I’m sort of astonished this guy hasn’t been put on a stamp yet regardless of how he died, and even besides his work in...
  21. bookish-but-corruptible reblogged this from themasterscompanion and added:
    *winces* ugh. uugh. Chemical. Castration. Oh, they’re sorry. Well that’s nice.
  22. themasterscompanion reblogged this from lord-kitschener
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