How Did Alan Turing Become an Important Figure For Gay Rights?
Turing became an important figure because of what he had to endure, despite his contributions to the world as a pioneering computer scientist. Until the late 1960s, homosexuality was treated as criminal behavior in the UK, and when authorities found out that Turing was homosexual, he was given a choice: prison or chemical castration. He chose the latter, a painful and damaging process. It’s believed that he was driven to suicide shortly after enduring chemical castration. Turing’s mother claimed his death was accidental, due to his frequent handling of cyanide for his experiments, as seen early in the film, but suicide has been given as the official cause of death, and many of his close friends believed it was both likely and unsurprising.