Alan Turing the gay World War II codebreaking genius who was martyred for being gay in the 1950′s will be featured in a set of limited edition postage stamps the UK’s Royal Mail have confirmed.
Turing mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst, and computer scientist is one of 10 prominent people chosen for the Britons of Distinction stamps along with such famous Brits as War heroine Odette Hallowes and architect Sir Basil Spence.
In 1952, after reporting a crime that happened against Turing his homosexuality became known and Turing was arrested and tried for homosexuality, which at that time was a criminal offense. Turing was given a choice between imprisonment or probation conditional on his agreement to undergo hormonal treatment designed to reduce libido. He accepted chemical castration via oestrogen hormone injections
Two years later Turing’s house cleaner found him dead. he had committed suicide by taking cyanyde pills.
That is just way too bizarre. But at least the British people in the past 60 years have progressed centuries beyond the American Right Wing.