• PugJesus@lemmy.worldOPM
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    3 months ago

    Explanation: Alan Turing was a mathematician and computer scientist whose revolutionary work during WW2 helped the British shorten the war considerably by breaking (and thus having access to) Nazi coded messages.

    A little over half a decade after the war, a chance break-in at his house led to him accidentally incriminating himself - by admitting to the presence of his boyfriend. This being the 1950s UK, the courts gave him a choice for the horrific crime of homosexuality - chemical castration, or several months in prison. Turing considered that he would not last in prison, and opted for the chemical treatment. Some time later, he bit into an apple laced with cyanide and died, which many consider to be an act of suicide (though it is still disputed, some believe it was genuinely an accident).

    • GoosLife@lemmy.world
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      3 months ago

      Wait a second, Alan Turing was a queer icon? I had no idea.

      I cannot fathom how anyone can allow people to be punished for loving who they love, in a consenting relationship between two adults. What a terrible and tragic story. Fuck anyone who wants to punish people for doing something that doesn’t hurt anyone; for doing something that in fact is literally the direct opposite of hurting anyone. Like, fuck them to the core, and not in any nice way.

      • MajorHavoc@programming.dev
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        3 months ago

        Wait a second, Alan Turing was a queer icon?

        Yeah. He’s a queer icon, and a god among humans to computer science fans.

        It breaks my heart that he didn’t get to see the current era of queer federated computing. If there’s any kind of after-life, Alan has got to be rooting for the Fediverse.