Perhaps one of the first things that may come to mind when thinking about what was happening seven decades ago, is the recent celebrated Platinum Jubilee of Elizabeth II. What if I tell you that Alan Turing was prosecuted in the same year? He was one of the most influential names and geniuses of the past century, and one of the heroes of the British nation. Therefore, what was his atrocious act?
He is often considered the father of modern computer science. During the Second World War, Turing’s work at Bletchley Park, Buckinghamshire helped the Allied efforts to read secret German messages sent by their Enigma machines. Moreover, he detailed a procedure known as the Turing Test. This is a test of a machine’s ability to exhibit intelligent behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from that of a human, the basis for artificial intelligence.
In 1952, he worked at the University of Manchester when he was arrested for “gross indecency” (in effect for being gay) with the 19-year-old Arnold Murray and Turing was forced to undergo so-called “organo-therapy” (chemical castration). At this time homosexuality was illegal in the United Kingdom.
In 1954, he was discovered dead in his bed, poisoned by cyanide, when he was forty-one. The official verdict was suicide, but no motive was established at the 1954 inquest.
In 2009, the ex-British Prime Minister Gordon Brown gave a posthumous apology for this inhumane treatment. Turing is frequently honoured across British landscapes, and his story was on the silver screen through the biopics Codebreaker (Clare Beavan & Nic Stacey, 2011) and The Imitation Game (Morten Tyldum, 2014).
Two years before the iconic night of June 28th 1969, outside the Stonewall Inn, a New Yorker gay bar in the Greenwich Village, homosexuality was decriminalized in the United Kingdom and the United States. Before the decriminalization, there were many victims in the dark, like the British genius mentioned. That June night marked the start of the Stonewall Riots, that was a series of violent confrontations between police and LGBT+ rights activists. A fight for their right to live (gender identity) and love (sexual orientation). As the riots progressed, an international gay rights movement was born.
The movement became a symbol of resistance against social and political discrimination, promoting solidarity and respect for the LGBT+ community. Besides that, it inspired and awakened the news generation to political activism. These effects are already evident a decade later, during Harvey Milk’s election, who was the first openly gay person elected to public office in California. As well, during 1984-1985 in the United Kingdom, Lesbian and Gays supported the miners in their strike protests for 'Coal not Dole.' The Greed Decade and the Gangsta Rap Nineties, when the global pandemic of HIV/AIDS struck, also left an irreparable gap for the LGBT+ community worldwide.
In the present day, although the times have changed numerically, there is still some retrograde consistency. Out of the 195 countries in the world, 170 do not allow same-sex marriage, 69 do not allow homosexuality, and 11 have the death penalty for homosexuals. Most governments deny trans people the right to legally change their name and gender from those that were assigned to them at birth. A quarter of the world’s population believes that being LGBT+ should be a crime.
Incredibly, there are still issues with the community even in countries classified as development. In the most varied fields, such as health, home, at work, education, and sports. According to the facts and figures from Stonewall in the United Kingdom…
One in eight LGBT people (13%) have experienced some form of unequal treatment from healthcare staff. Almost one in four LGBT people (23%) have witnessed discriminatory or negative remarks against LGBT people by healthcare staff. One in seven LGBT people (14%) have avoided treatment for fear of discrimination.
Only half of lesbian, gay and bi people (46 per cent) and trans people (47 per cent) feel able to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity to everyone in their family. Black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBT people are about twice as likely to attend LGBT-specific venues or events as white LGBT people, 45 per cent compared to 22 per cent.
More than a third of LGBT staff (35%) have hidden that they are LGBT at work for fear of discrimination. Almost one in five LGBT staff (18%) have been the target of negative comments or conduct from work colleagues because of their gender identity and/or sexual orientation. Almost one in five LGBT people (18%) who were looking for work said they were discriminated against because of their identity while trying to get a job.
Two-thirds (64%) of LGBTQ+ people had experienced anti-LGBT+ violence or abuse. Of these, 9 in 10 (92%) had experienced verbal abuse, 3 in 10 (29%) had experienced physical violence and 2 in 10 (17%) had experienced sexual violence. Only 1 in 3 respondents who wanted or needed support were able to access it. One third (34%) of Black, Asian and minority ethnic LGBT people have experienced a hate crime or incident in the past twelve months, compared to one in five white LGBT people (20%).
42% of LGBT+ school pupils have been bullied in the past year, double the number of non-LGBT+ pupils (21%). 48% of pupils have had little to no positive messaging about being LGBT+ at school in the last year. However, pupils whose schools had positive messaging about being LGBT+ also had reduced suicidal thoughts and feelings – regardless of whether they are LGBT+ or not. Half of LGBT pupils hear homophobic slurs 'frequently' or 'often' at school. Two in five LGBT pupils (40%) are never taught anything about LGBT issues at school.
One in ten LGBT people (10 per cent) who attended a live sporting event in the last year experienced discrimination. 17 per cent of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people have experienced and 49 per cent have witnessed homophobia or transphobia in sport. 66 per cent of lesbian, gay, bi and trans people felt that there were problems with homophobia and transphobia in sport and that this acted as a barrier to LGBT people taking part. One in eight LGBT people (12 per cent) avoid going to the gym or participating in sports groups because of fear of discrimination and harassment.
The justification for all the atrocious statistics listed above is the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of the members of the LGBT+ community.
Each second, in every dark corner of the world, they live in the shadows and die silently mutilated by hate, the coldest weapon you can use against someone else. We must never forget the quote from Alan Turing “Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes hollow.”
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