Alan Turg: the gay father of the morn puter – Stunt Life

Contents:

• ALAN TURG: GAY BREAKER'S FIANCE KEEPS MEMORY ALIVE
• ‘IMATN GAME,’ ALAN TURG AND THE CHEMIL WAR ON U.K.’S GAYS
• ALAN TURG & THE MEDIL ABE OF GAY MEN
• THE MOST SHOCKG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY
• ALAN TURG LAW: GAY, UNJTLY NVICTED - AND NOW NIED A PARDON
• NEW ALAN TURG LETTERS REVEAL TURMOIL OVER SEXUALY, ‘GAY CURE’ HORMONE THERAPY
• ALAN TURG: THE GAY FATHER OF THE MORN PUTER

ALAN TURG: GAY BREAKER'S FIANCE KEEPS MEMORY ALIVE

Durg Turg’s life, homosexualy was a crimal offence and Turg was nvicted 1952 of “Gross Incency”.

One of the fg markers of change has been the LGBT+ liberatn movement, which began the 1970s and mpaigned for equal rights for the gay muny. More than 60 years after breaker Alan Turg’s ath an apparent suici, his battle wh his sexualy and longg for a permanent relatnship have emerged three prevly unpublished rrponnce dat om the 1950s when, after beg found guilty of gross cency wh a 19-year-old man, he had been sentenced to chemil treatment was tend to supprs homosexual urg.

Image ptn, Alan Turg was posthumoly pardoned 2013Alan Turg was a puter pneer, maths geni and breaker whose fluence enpassed wars, morn putg and the liv of lns of gay was regnised for his geni but, like many men until 1967, he lived as a "crimal" simply for beg gay. A change the law me too late for Turg whose suici 1954 followed a nvictn for havg a relatnship wh a 's appearance on the new £50 note has been weled by parts of the LGBT+ muny as a symbol of a untry facg up to the way gay men were persecuted.

‘IMATN GAME,’ ALAN TURG AND THE CHEMIL WAR ON U.K.’S GAYS

Instead of gog to prison, Turg was chemilly died om cyani poisong two years later and was led at his qut that he had mted source, Getty ImagImage ptn, Peter Tatchell the new £50 not were a sign that LGBT people were accepted "at the hight level of our society"Proment gay rights spokman Peter Tatchell said Turg's treatment was symbolic of a "wch hunt" of gay and bisexual men, which led to 1, 000 beg imprisoned at any one time durg the was among those who have weled Turg's appearance on banknot om 2021.

"He is an important figure for a lot of gay men bee his pardon paved the way for nvictns to be overturned.

"Image source, Science Photo LibraryImage ptn, Turg's ath 1954 me two years after he was arrted for beg gayMark Fletcher, the chief executive of Manchter Pri, said Turg was an "in for LGBT+ people" and scribed his cln on the banknot as a "great step forward". "Image source, Manchter PriImage ptn, Manchter Pri chief executive Mark Fletcher said Turg was "an in"However, some mpaigners rema angry about the persecutn of gay and bisexual men the UK until Manchter-based LGBT Foundatn was formed 1975 to help men e out after beg gay was munitns ordator Joe Nellist said: "As an LGBT+ pneer and role mol, 's ccial that we have visible regnn of figur like Alan Turg. He was good-lookg, athletic, eccentric, and openly homosexual.

ALAN TURG & THE MEDIL ABE OF GAY MEN

In 1951 Turg began a homosexual relatnship wh a workg-class youth. He reported the crime to the police and munited his spicn that the culpr was an associate of his gay iend. He nfsed to his homosexual affair and was charged wh “gross cency, ” a crime then punishable by a maximum of two years’ imprisonment.

THE MOST SHOCKG FACTS ABOUT GAY CONVERSN THERAPY

Neher his homosexualy nor his psychiatric treatment was mentned. No one Turg’s circle, himself clud, was able or willg to transcend the psychiatric zegeist: Homoerotic behavr and self-termed ath are self-evint symptoms of mental illns, argu, requirg and jtifyg ercive medil-psychiatric treatment.

Greenbm, vehemently rejected the roner’s diagnosis, though not by nttg the claims that engagg homosexual nduct and self-killg are evince of diseas curable by doctors.

ALAN TURG LAW: GAY, UNJTLY NVICTED - AND NOW NIED A PARDON

In 1967 the UK crimalized homosexualy. Turg’s bgrapher, Andrew Hodg, not that Turg did not nsir his homosexualy a disease, a crime, or a shameful ndn.

NEW ALAN TURG LETTERS REVEAL TURMOIL OVER SEXUALY, ‘GAY CURE’ HORMONE THERAPY

Countls of Turg’s gay ntemporari at Cambridge and  London—Wtgenste, Keyn, Lytton Strachey, many of the Apostl and Bloomsburys—sensibly stayed away om psychiatrists. The persecutn of homosexuals is paradigmatic of the history of psychiatry’s monumental blunrs and btali and of s policy of never acknowledgg nor apologizg for them. After an athletics meetg on Boxg Day 1946, a sports reporter, who was aware of his life as signer of the "electronic bra", terviewed was reported as "diffint" about his prows, and creded Amerins for the "donkey work" self-effacement, mixed wh a dark ht that he had actually ntributed somethg better than "donkey work" to the puter, typified the cryptic way he spoke of top of this, there was a matter that no-one wished to know was arrted on 7 Febary 1952 for his affair wh a young Manchter was obliged to unrtake jectns of female hormon tend to renr him the 1970s, this was thought utterly unprtable and circulated only amic if unnscly, this meant a black cloud hung over his scientific 1973, the Gay Liberatn Front broke this silence, publishg a brief statement of what had happened as an example of what gay men had endured om the law and medice, but few then were terted and his name meant ltle.

And he had shown fiance rather than told the police that he thought there was "a Royal Commissn stg to legalise " 1952 and aga 1953 he sisted on holidays abroad, Norway and Greece, explicly for eedom om Brish law, and very likely fluenced by hearg of the early Sndavian gay movement.

His ears pricked up at a ht of as a gay man, Turg was particularly unlucky. The pot about 1948 when he cid to have a more posive gay life was jt the pot when there was a change om silence to active was not only timg that he was cursed: there was his very special none of his iends knew 1954 was that he had been the chief scientific figure the breakg operatn throughout World War 1948 the Cold War, the ncept of secury vettg and the needs of the Amerin alliance end the "one-of-our-chaps" basis on which he had been reced 1952, Turg had to stop the work he had ntued to do for GCHQ, and what he cryptilly referred to as a "crisis" 1953 seems to have volved tense surveillance. It is for this very special and secret reason that his life 1954 might well have seemed impossible to figureSce the 1970s, everythg has homosexualy was crimal until 1967 has e to seem hardly credible, and the unmentnable has bee Bletchley Park breakg story, totally secret 1954, beme public after 1974, and Alan Turg emerged as a Merl-like figure om this hherto dark age, not only a geni of cryptographic theory but wh hands-on rponsibily for the U-boat war.

ALAN TURG: THE GAY FATHER OF THE MORN PUTER

Ls than a after crackg the German’s Enigma 1943 — savg 14 ln liv and makg what Wston Churchill hailed as “the sgle biggt ntributn to the Allied victory” — the master cryptologist was arrted for engagg homosexual acts. At the time, “hormone therapy was nsired a more enlightened, mornized approach to alg wh homosexualy, ” screenwrer Moore tells THR. “Whereas the 1940s and earlier homosexualy had been thought of as a crime, the 1950s the prevailg attu among doctors was that was a disease.

Many gay men unrgog the treatment killed themselv, and the practice was disntued the early 1950s. But no apologi were forthg to the thoands of ls celebrated gay men who shared Turg’s fate.