Tag Archives: Alan Turing

We Did It Before and We Can Do It Again: Revisiting The Anita Bryant Florida Orange Juice Boycott of 1977

Gay History – June 7: Anita Bryant’s “Save Our Children” Dade County Gay Rights Repeal Vote Succeeds.

June 7:

1778 – Beau Brummell  born in London.  His real name was George Bryan Brummell. This English dandy is responsible for the caricature of the gay males that persisted for generations. He lived in the poshest apartments, wore the most stylish clothes, and lived beyond his means to attain them.

His bons mots have survived him. Asked if he ever ate vegetables, he replied that he “once ate a pea.” He also claimed to have caught a cold from a “damp stranger” and is credited with introducing and establishing as fashion the modern man’s suit, worn with a tie. He said it took him five hours to dress and he recommended that boots be polished with champagne and had the most bitchy sense of humor in England. 

Brummell died in an insane asylum hounded by his creditors.

1928 – Birth date of James Ivory, director. Ivory is best known for the results of his long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions, which included both Indian-born film producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. Their films won six Academy Awards.

1954 – Alan Turing, father of computer science and mathematical genius, commits suicide using cyanide. He had been responsible for cracking a code used by Germany during World War II, which gave the Allies an advantage. After being tried for homosexual acts, he was forced to undergo medical treatments including estrogen injections.

1970 – Author E.M. Forster died after a series of strokes. He is known best for his ironic and well-plotted novels examining class difference and hypocrisy in early 20th-century British society. Forster’s humanistic impulse toward understanding and sympathy may be aptly summed up in the epigraph to his 1910 novel Howards End: “Only connect … “. His 1908 novel, A Room with a View, is his most optimistic work, while A Passage to India (1924) brought him his greatest success.

1975 – New Hampshire state legislators accidentally repealed their state’s sodomy laws due to ambiguous wording in a rape penalties bill. They didn’t know they had done it until gay publications pointed it out, but allowed the repeal to stand.

1977 – A referendum, in Dade County, Florida forced by fundamentalist Christian Anita Bryant, husband Bob Green and their “Save Our Children” organization repealed the county’s gay rights ordinance prohibiting discrimination on basis of sexual orientation. It was the first major battle — and defeat — in the struggle for gay civil rights in United States. It was also the first successful use of “child molestation tactic” by anti- gay forces and set the pattern of attack for remainder of Seventies and into Eighties.

Bryant’s game plan against homosexuals was fearmongering  and thier “access to children” which would be her group’s main focus. She told one audience, “Some males who would become teachers even want to wear dresses to work and flaunt their homosexuality in front of our children.” To another, she warned,  “When the law requires you to let an admitted homosexual teach your children and serve as a role model for them, it’s time to stop being so tolerant.” She also blamed homosexuals for the weather. “Do you know why California has a drought? Because a Southern California city passed a gay rights ordinance. That’s God’s way of punishing civilizations that are tolerant of homosexuals.”

Bryant who would later lose her lucrative Florida orange juice spokeswoman gig also lost a planned syndicated television series when producers backed away from the controversial singer. This gave her a chance to reveal her persecution complex. Declaring that “the blacklisting of Anita Bryant has begun,” she claimed that in losing that job, “it destroys the dream that I have had since I was a child.”

After failing at almost everything she has tried since the late 1970′s Anita Bryant resurfaced in 2010 at the anti-gay, “Reclaiming America for Christ” rally in Oklahoma City alongside state Rep. Sally Kern (R) and the ever-lying David Barton of  Wallbuilders

Anita Bryant will forever be etched in history as the most homophobic EVIL BITCH ever.

1978 – California’s Proposition Six, also known as the Briggs initiative, qualified for the November ballot. The bill sought to ban gay teachers and forbid discussion of homosexuality that was neutral or positive.

1989 – Health officials in Alabama announced that its state Medicaid program would begin paying for the drug AZT. Alabama was the only state at that time that refused to cover AZT.

1989 – Ethel May Punchon, who publicly came out as a lesbian at age 105, died of natural causes in Melbourne, Australia at age 106.

1990 – A demonstration was held in Hyde Park (London) against police entrapment.

1997 – President Clinton made an address to the nation calling for action against hate crimes, including anti-gay violence. Of course this was years before Bill Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell into law destroying the lives of thousands of gays and lesbians for  “our own good”.

1998 – Pope John Paul II gives a speech attacking the recognition of same-sex relationships.

1998 – Reggie White, defensive end for the Green Bay Packers, vowed to continue to fight against homosexual rights. The homophobe also claimed that God told him not to retire from the Green Bay Packers.

2003 – Reverend V. Gene Robinson was elected bishop coadjutor of the Episcopal diocese of New Hampshire, becoming the first openly gay bishop in the church’s history. 2003 – Just weeks after the Philadelphia council of the Boy Scouts of America passed a resolution to add sexual orientation to its nondiscrimination policy (in order to receive funds from United Way), it expelled an 18-year-old scout for being openly gay.

2006 – Macy’s department store in Boston removed a window display marking the city’s Gay Pride week after MassResistance, a group that opposes same-sex marriage, complained it was offensive. The display at the downtown Boston store featured two male mannequins, with one wearing a Gay Pride rainbow flag around his waist, next to a list of several planned Boston Pride Week events. MassResistance said the mannequin wearing the flag had a “skirt” on.

2007 – Isaiah Washington lost his acting job on the hit ABC medical drama “Grey’s Anatomy,” five months after creating a furor with his use of an anti-gay slur toward another actor. Washington is still unemployed most of the time till this very day.

Gay WWII Codebreaker Alan Turing to Be On UK £50 Note

Gay WWII Codebreaker Alan Turing to Be On UK £50 Note

Alan Turing, the scientist known for helping crack the Enigma code during the second world war and pioneering the modern computer, has been chosen to appear on the new £50 note.

From the Bank of England’s site:

“Alan Turing provided the theoretical underpinnings for the modern computer. While best known for his work devising code-breaking machines during WWII, Turing played a pivotal role in the development of early computers first at the National Physical Laboratory and later at the University of Manchester. He set the foundations for work on artificial intelligence by considering the question of whether machines could think. Turing was homosexual and was posthumously pardoned by the Queen having been convicted of gross indecency for his relationship with a man. His legacy continues to have an impact on both science and society today.”

Turing was selected from a list of almost 1,000 scientists in a decision that recognised both his role in fending off the threat of German U-boats in the Battle of the Atlantic and the impact of his postwar persecution for homosexuality.

Turing Law: Britain To Formally Pardon 65,000 Gay Men Convicted Over Sodomy Laws

Turing Law: Britain To Formally Pardon 65,000 Gay Men Convicted Over Sodomy Laws

 

The Guardian reports:

Gay and bisexual men convicted of now-abolished sexual offences in England and Wales are to receive posthumous pardons, the government has announced. Thousands of living men convicted over consensual same-sex relationships will also be eligible for the pardon.

Lib Dem peer Lord Sharkey, who proposed the amendment to the Policing and Crimes Bill, said it was “momentous”. It follows the pardoning of World War Two code-breaker Alan Turing for gross indecency in 2013.

Under the amendment – dubbed “Turing law” – deceased people who were convicted of sexual acts that are no longer deemed criminal will receive an automatic pardon. Anyone living who has been convicted of such offences could already apply through the Home Office to have the offence wiped from their criminal records.

But now, if the Home Office agrees that the offence is no longer an offence under current law, they will automatically be pardoned. Justice Minister Sam Gyimah said it was “hugely important that we pardon people convicted of historical sexual offences who would be innocent of any crime today”.

Over 15,000 men convicted under the law are still living.

George Montague, who was convicted in 1974 of gross indecency with a man, welcomed the decision, but says he wants an apology, not a pardon.

“To accept a pardon means you accept that you were guilty. I was not guilty of anything. I was only guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

Britian’s Sexual Offences Act decriminalized private homosexual acts between men aged over 21 in England and Wales, in 1967.

The law was not changed in Scotland until 1980, or in Northern Ireland until 1982.

Isle of Man Follows The UK And Will Introduce Gay Pardon Law, When Will You America?

isle-of-man

The Isle of Man has announced it will be moving forward with plans to pardon historical convictions for gay offenses.

The former Home Affairs Minister, Juan Waterson, has indicated he’s pushing for the pardon’s to be included in a new sexual offenses act that will be open for public consultation before the end of the year.

The announcement from the tiny self-governing protectorate, that’s located in the Irish Sea between Britain and Ireland, follows a similar commitment from British Prime Minister Theresa May.

May has pledged to implement the Alan Turing law. Turing was a code breaker who a key member of the team that broke the Nazis’ enigma code during the second world war. Turing took his own life in 1954 after being convicted of gross indecency and undergoing chemical castration. He was pardoned for his homosexuality in 2013.

Now the British government is preparing the forgive all convictions for gay offences prior to the decriminalization of homosexuality.

Homosexuality was legalized in the United Kingdom in 1967 but the Isle of Man did not change their laws until 1992. LGBTIQ+ political activists on the Isle of Man have also called for the Chief Constable of the police force to issue an apology for the past actions of the police.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau  posthumously pardon a man imprisoned in 1966 for being gay who is largely credited for bringing about a change in Canada’s laws on homosexuality.

But nothing has come from America on the subject of pardoning the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands of gay men who were convicted in the past for sodomy offenses.

Through the 20th century, the gradual liberalization of American sexual morals led to the elimination of sodomy laws in most states. During this time, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of sodomy laws in Bowers v. Hardwick in 1986. However, in 2003 the Supreme Court reversed the decision with Lawrence v. Texas, invalidating sodomy laws in the remaining 14 states (Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan,Mississippi, Missouri (statewide), North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Utah, and Virginia).

Unfortunately sodomy laws in the United States were largely a matter of state rather than federal jurisdiction, except for laws governing the District of Columbia and the U.S. Armed Forces which makes the process of a mass pardoning difficult if not impossible in America’s current political climate

British Spy Agency Head Apologizes For Agency’s Past Treatment Of Homosexuals

British Spy Agency Head Apologies For Agency's Past Treatment Of Homosexuals

The head of Britain’s digital espionage agency, GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan has apologized for the organization’s historic prejudice against homosexuals, that the agency’s ban on homosexuals had caused long-lasting psychological damage to many and were excluded from working there saying it failed to learn from the treatment of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing.

“The fact that it was common practice for decades reflected the intolerance of the times and the pressures of the Cold War, but it does not make it any less wrong and we should apologize for it,” Hannigan said. At GCHQ, Turing is now seen as a genius— “a problem-solver who was not afraid to think differently and radically,”

Homosexuals were not only discriminated in the agency’s past but were also fired from their jobs if found out and forced to go into “treatment” because of the belief that homosexuals were more easily corruptible and could be blackmailed because of their sexuality into giving up secrets or being turned to work for the other side.

Now more than five decades later in January of 2016 Britain’s MI5 spy agency was  named that country’s best employer for promoting lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender diversity.

TRAILER: “The Imitation Game” The upcoming historical Alan Turing drama – Video

Alan Turing

 

The Imitation Game, the upcoming historical drama film about British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing will be released on November 28th.

Turning , a key figure in cracking Nazi Germany’s Enigma code that helped the Allies win World War II, who was later criminally prosecuted for his homosexuality and committed suicide because of it.

TRIVIA:  The title of the film is a reference to Turing’s proposed test of the same name discussed in his seminal 1950 paper on artificial intelligence entitled Computing Machinery and Intelligence. The test aims to answer the question “Can machines think?”

Watch the trailer below:

 

Great Britain To Grant Posthumous Pardon To Alan Turing Father of Computer Science

Alan Turing

Great Britain will be granting Alan Turing  who is widely considered to be the father of computer science and artificial intelligence  a posthumous pardon . Turing committed suicide after being convicted of gross indecency under Britain’s anti-homosexuality code.

The government signaled on Friday that it is prepared to support a backbench bill that would pardon Turing, who died from cyanide poisoning at the age of 41 in 1954 after he was subjected to “chemical castration”. Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, a government whip, told peers that the government would table the third reading of the Alan Turing (statutory pardon) bill at the end of October if no amendments are made. “If nobody tables an amendment to this bill, its supporters can be assured that it will have speedy passage to the House of Commons,” Ahmad said. The announcement marks a change of heart by the government, which declined last year to grant pardons to the 49,000 gay men, now dead, who were convicted under the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. They include Oscar Wilde.

Turing’s homosexuality resulted in a criminal prosecution in 1952, when homosexual acts were still illegal in the United Kingdom. He accepted treatment with female hormones (chemical castration) as an alternative to prison.

Turing died in 1954, just over two weeks before his 42nd birthday, from cyanide poisoning. A formal inquest determined that his death was suicide.

On September 10,  2009, following an Internet campaign, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown made an official public apology on behalf of the British government for “the appalling way Turning was treated.” and in May 2012, a private member’s bill was put before the House of Lords to grant Turing a statutory pardon.

Gay Computer Genuis and Martyr Alan Turing To Be Honoured In Royal Mail Stamp Set

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.