another poster just said something like .. was it really difficult coming out in the old days I was reminded of a talk on Alan Turing. Not so long ago, in the UK anyway, being gay was a crime ,,, yes, illegal, - until 1967 when de-criminalised it affected many people in so many ways... everything was underground, super secretive, fear, risk of imprisonment when Alan Turing (famed for breaking the Nazi's Enigma Code in WW2 and inventing early computers) was put on trial for a homosexual act in private .. the judge gave him the choice between imprisonment or probation conditional on his agreement to undergo "chemical castration" ... he took the chemical treatment ... ultimately committed suicide 4 years later age 41. thats a snapshot of the social environment anyone now in their 40s/50s/60s grew up in !! And why so many of us are so messed up.. You young 'uns got so much more freedom ... but it pains me that so many still have trouble with coming out .. I guess we all have the struggle at one time or another and in one way or another
What a terrible shame about Alan Turing. The man was one of the greatest geniuses to grace the earth, and he was taken out by the confederacy of dunces around him who may as well have been a pack of hyenas. I am glad to be living now at least for the sake of the LGBT community. I also have a slight urge to do some research into homosexuality in the middle ages for a short bit of fiction. It might help some in the present day to know that people in harsher times had it FAR worse.
Yes.. Turing especially hurts because he was the father of everything I studied and that I'm now living of. Isn't it interesting, having this community of people based on LGBT support here at EC, all of us joining together, which wouldn't be possible in this way without the computer? Thank you, Alan Turing, I say. You deserved so much more. But he was hardly the only one. Oscar Wilde comes immediately to mind, of course, although that was a lot earlier. ---------- Post added 16th Jan 2013 at 02:04 AM ---------- Basically, all this (reading on history after reading this thread, of course) just makes me feel so guilty for fretting over my life and coming out and whatever. What do I have to complain about, fcol? Compared to these people, I'm having it almost too easy.
Being Gay was only decriminalized in 1993 in ireland, I find the whole 'its a crime to be who you are' shocking and sad at the same time. I am glad, and i must say, a little jealous, of the younger people, (but it is only a small jealousy honest!) growing up in a freer society (though not as free as it should be) How i wish i could have grown up in this day and age, rather than the 1970's spending all my time thinking i was a 'freak' and no one or no thing to let me see otherwise. sad really. BUT I'm extremely happy for the way things are moving, even if it is at a snails pace! Love & Peace
1993.. thats incredible!!! I did not know that. What I also learned recently is that in places like India (and other former British colonies around the world) ... the laws there ... that are still today are in force were (of course) British laws from the Victorian era that have just never been amended. It is so disgusting that we left these awful legacies ... and long since independent countries are still enforcing these archaic laws that we imposed on them ... it makes me want to cry:tears:
Yeah, it's really quite amazing, how far our culture has come in such a short time; to have gone from an almost universally homophobic/racist/etc culture to one that largely accepts gay people (issues are still common, but for the most part one can function being publically gay in the US/Canada), as well as multiculturalism is quite a leap
I find the whole 'I live this way, so must you' thing incredibly sad, who has any right to tell another human being how to live or love. but thankfully things are changing, but it is slow change. i am heartbroken when i think about the 'lost time' living a different life because i was afraid to be 'me'. hopefully the up and coming youth have their heads on better than what went before.
Even though things have changed so drastically, it doesn't change the fact that countless lives are being taken all the time today because of discrimination. It just shows that halfway is not good enough, we need full on love and acceptance no? Well, tolerance. But the former sounds nice, huh? I'm sure alot of people will have that one day. I'm sorry you guys had to live through those bad eras, who didn't get to come out younger. On the bright side, unlike us, you got to live through alot of these (good)changes firsthand. Watching things change, and ending up in a better world.
