this post was submitted on 27 Aug 2025
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Explanation: One of the key scientists in the construction of early codebreaking computers in WW2 was Alan Turing (yes, of Turing Test fame), a gay man. While it was not immediately after WW2, in the 1950s, he inadvertently admitted to a cop that he was homosexual when being interviewed about a burglary at his house (cops, even on the occasions they are useful, are NOT your friends). His key work in defeating the literal fucking Nazis was disregarded in favor of chemically castrating him after he pled guilty to the charge.
It is suspected that this was a major cause of his subsequent suspected suicide by biting into a cyanide-laced apple (though some still hold that the apple incident was an accident).
Let's also mention that Alan Turing was absolutely brilliant, mind bogglingly so.
His story always angers me so much. Like, dude just wanted to live and do math, can't you fucking let him?
NO. He will do MATHS or nothing.
1+0 = ok
1+1 = straight to jail
He did the math. They did not let him :(
With the exception of sums. He had a licence for those too.
Wasn’t it more so that his work was still highly classified rather than actively disregarded? There were definitely those that could have intervened that didn’t though. Really shameful
At the time Turing (arguably) killed himself, the "Ultra" project was still a state secret that nobody publicly knew anything about. However, people like Churchill did know all about it and they knew exactly the magnitude of Turing's contribution to it, and yet they did nothing to defend Turing although they could have without revealing the Ultra secrets. Absolutely shameful.
Allegedly also the Apple logo is derived from that.
Didn't it come from the Beatles? But the Turing story would be nicer.
I had heard the same, that the bite from the poisoned apple inspired the Apple logo, though it could be apochryphal.
I did some research and apparently it is a myth started long time ago.
According to the designer, the apple byte is there just to signify proportion.
About the Beatles, they simply share the name, it is Apple records, the have had several legal issues with that.
Huh. Fucking awful, but like, why chemically castrate someone who's gay? They're unlikely to have kids (unless they're bi/pan/etc.), so like, why? On the off chance they did decide to have a kid, who would that affect. Were they afraid of spreading "The Gay™️" to their children via DNA? If anything they should've prayed and hoped his mental genius would pass onto his kids.
Fucking atrocious...
I'm not an expert, but I imagine it also fucks your sexdrive up so you're "cured" of the urges.
Chemical castration uses drugs to suppress the libido.
The drugs for doing so at the time were also horrendous so it was absolutely life ruining
It wasn't disregarded; it was never mentioned because it was still a state secret.
He lived and taught at the university in my city, Manchester and we have an Alan Turing way (a road) named after him.
This city remembers how he was wronged by the government.
So WTF does queer mean?! Our man was simply gay, homosexual, we have words for that. That's a sincere question BTW. As an old cis guy, "queer" seems to mean whatever the fuck people want it to mean, seen a few definitions. Somebody help?
I personally use queer as a shorthand for lgbtqia+ because saying that in conversation is a bit unwieldy
Then the math breaks
Q = lgbtQia+
0 = - Q + lgbtQia
0 = -Q(lgbtia - 1)
So lgbtia = 1 or Q = 0
Fair enough. But lgbtqia+?! Can we not see how confusing are arbitrary these words and meanings and acronyms are?
Imma roll with LGBT. Good enough, covers everyone, at least close enough.
Lgbtqia+ isn't any more arbitrary than lgbt if you take the 5 minutes to google what it means.
Honestly, using queer is probably better than lgbt because that includes the Asexuals and Intersex people, which is what the a and i are representing.
The terms are getting more and more complicated because we finally allowed people to not be conformant with the norms. So we are in the process of discovering new identities that shouldn't be unrepresented over the years, which obviously makes talking about this more complex but also allows us to be more accurate.
It's not hard to learn for people who like learning about the world, is only hard for people who think understanding other people is a burden.
My definition is any group that typically was targeted by the slur “queer” in the past would be covered by the queer umbrella. The slur was generally used against minority sexual orientations and gender identities, or in other words any trait or behavior that is not “normal” for heterosexuals or “normal” for man/woman, but isn’t limited to well defined groups. For example, a cisgender heterosexual man who liked to dress in women’s clothing would be considered queer by those who use it as a slur. They are not LGBT, but if they identified as Queer that would make sense to me.
Like the other person said, these days queer is usually used as a sort of catch-all for any one not cisgendered and straight, although sometimes people identify as simply queer if they don't feel they fit neatly in any of the predefined lgbt+ etc categories.
or even if they do fit neatly and they just don't want to explain their specifics (because it can be wicked burdensome/gets old/folks want you to justify your identity)
Drag can definitely understand why someone with an identity like drag's wouldn't broadcast it. A lot of people on the right wing feel enraged when they see someone with a weird identity, and they get the cause and effect mixed around and think the identity is designed to make them angry, so they call drag a troll. One guy even sexually harassed himself with an alt account and tried to convince people drag made the alt, and people believed it for a few months before he started using the same trick on everyone else he disagreed with.