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Comment by gaius | Hacker News Reader

Then you don't understand the British ruling class of the time - everyone of them, judges, civil servants, politicians, army officers, would have had homosexual experiences at boarding school, not necessarily consentingly, but they were perfectly well used to homosexuals.

The problem as far as the establishment was concerned was that Turing had access to all the nation's secrets and he was inviting anyone home he fancied... That he was gay was just a pretext for what happened next.

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Oh yes, for a long time in the UK, the percentage of males whose first sexual experience was with another male was sort 30%. It dropped when the gay rights movement took off.

Although they were aware of homosexuality, and likely to have practised it, don't pretend they were OK with homosexuality. They viewed it as something that one should grow out of. That there was something unnatural about grown men doing it. That it wasn't possible to have a real same-sex relationship. That it was a unseemly, unnatural thing.

If Turing had been inviting random women to his house he fancied (which would have happened to lots of other men in his position), it would not have been nearly as much of a problem.

Turing didn't turn off his homosexuality and settle down in a nice fake loveless marriage (with a woman) and keep up appearances.

Right, but it was eccentric while Turing was in favour, not anything for anyone to get upset over.

Hodges biography suggests that the attitude of the US security agencies may have been a factor in identifying gay men as security risks post war.

Alan Turing, The Enigma, pages 496 onward, several UK men suddenly removed from secret work in early 50s.

The American military has always had a very strange sexuality - on the one hand, "don't ask don't tell", but on the other, at Abu Ghraib and other places, the first thing they do as soon as grown-up supervision's back is turned, is sexually abuse male prisoners, and photograph it and share it. The norm seems to be, rigidly suppressed latent homosexuality.

"Alan and I were left with “the Wards”—always we referred to them as “the Wards.” We were the wards and they were our guardians but no matter—this was to be the centre of our existence for many years and our home from home. I believe it was here, perhaps in the first four or five years at the Wards, perhaps even in the first two, that Alan became destined for a homosexual. Has anyone mentioned it until now?"

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/06/23/alan-turing...

I was previously unaware that this was such a common phenomena.

So he is suggesting Alan Turing’s homosexuality to be caused by strained relationships with parents… still seeing being gay as some kind of personality disorder, that could have been avoided by people taking better care of Turing?

That was a thoroughly conventional thing to think if you were born in 1908.

If anything it might be seen as forward thinking and caring, as opposed to people who thought it was a sin caused by the devil, and/or the person was cruel and wanted to do depraved things.

"It's a mental illness, don't blame the person", is kinder than "They are filthy amoral degenerate", but not as kind as "It's as valid a relationship type as heterosexuality"

That's an interesting piece - a memoir of Turing by his older brother - I'm glad you posted the link. The brother (a lawyer) comes across rather poorly by our standards, but it's worth reading.

Interesting that he cites the half-eaten apple as definitive proof of suicide, when (if the OP is correct) Turing habitually ate half an apple at bedtime, and this one was never tested for cyanide.

Yes, because heterosexuals in such positions never had affairs, or if they did, it was never with the wrong sort of woman.

Whether or not the ruling class was "used to homosexuals," their attitudes towards them were far from universally accepting or enlightened.

Kings had to resign/abdicate if they fell for the wrong woman ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_VIII_abdication_crisis )

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