Despite this, the general public remains largely unaware of his life or his contributions to science and society. Why don’t they teach any of this in schools? If they did… maybe you wouldn’t be so terrified of who you are.” – Ned Weeks in Larry Kramer’s The Normal Heart (1984), a play that depicted the gay community’s transition into a more socially conscious, politically organized group.Īlan Turing’s shadow quietly looms large in the history of computer science, and his story is increasingly cited as an illustration of injustices faced by the gay community. “Bruce, did you know that it was an openly gay Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning the Second World War? His name was Alan Turing and he cracked the Germans’ Enigma code so the Allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do – and when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay.