i know i may not get a lot of feedback but explain to me how it was, how you felt when you acknowledged you were..
Nobody was queer in the 60s or 70s. People didn't start being queer until the 80s. Before that they were just invisible faggots. In the 80s they became gay. In the 90s they came out. In the 2000s they started having parades. In the 2010s they are your next door neighbor, but you didn't know it, and nobody cares but the redneck Republicans. I never saw a "gay" person in my high school from1959--1963; seriously. I didn't even know I was, because I didn't know what it meant to feel like I did. Nobody ever told me. My "Oh, fuck! That's what it means." moment was fairly recently.
The 40s through 60s were pretty bad. You either lived as a straight person or married a beard who would allow you to have sex with other same sex counterparts. The 70s were slightly less bad.
I haven't done much research, but I can bring this little tidbit to the table: I used to go to college with this older guy who went to high school in the 90's. One day we were standing by a flyer for the school's Gay-Straight Alliance club. He started talking about how cool it was that homosexuality is more widely accepted nowadays (this was in 2010 btw). He said that back when he went to high school you would never see something like a GSA club because it was still taboo. That was in the 90's. I could only imagine how the earlier decades must have been.
I was either very young, or else not alive during those decades... That said, from all I've heard, the 40s into the the 60s (and maybe beyond) were more than hostile towards at least gay people. It was simply not acceptable by society standards, and was even considered a mental disease. So...most people who were gay, probably stayed very closeted. Some, I imagine, probably had serious cases of denial. "Oh, sure, I have fun with other men at the bathhouse! But it doensn't mean anything!" Any more serious relationships were carefully hidden. And even probably politely ignored in circles that knew the truth. A partner might be called "your roommate" by a gay man's parent's, for example. Hollywood was an interesting place during that era from what I've heard. There were many gay men, but they had to hide the fact from public at large, because presumably that would destroy a career. But there was also press coverage hoping to turn up gay actors... There are stories about actors being set up on dates with women to create a pretty picture for the public. I've even heard stories about negotiations about "you leave this actor alone, but you can out such-and-so." Keep in mind also that the 40s and 50s had much different attitudes towards sexuality in general than is the case now. It was very much a "you fall in love, you get married, and you have children" world. Sex outside marriage was considerably less acceptable. Birth control was also probably more controversial. (I actually saw a sex book probably written by a doctor that ranted about birth control "cheating nature.") This started changing in the 60s... I'm not sure how acceptable it was to be gay in the 70s; however, that era probably did loosen up a bit compared to the 40s. There was, I've heard, a period where it became more acceptable for men to fool around with other men... A little off topic, but I'd have to guess that the 80s saw a step back on acceptance. That era was more conservative, and there was a great deal of fear caused by the AIDS epidemic. I wonder if HIV had not come along if we wouldn't be further along on gay rights...
What Alan Turing had to endure after the truly great service he did for his country is shocking and downright disgraceful. An apology and a Royal pardon is a fat load of use when you're dead.
