24/06/2026
They called it “treatment.” Alan Turing’s story — and why acceptance of self and others still matters.
Let’s start without a name.
🔹The person who invented the computer before computers existed
In 1936, a mathematician published a paper describing a “universal machine” — a theoretical device that could perform any computation. It was pure mathematics. But it became the foundation of all computer science.
Every smartphone, laptop, and AI algorithm today is, at its core, a Turing machine.
🔹He helped win a war — and the world learned about it decades later
During WWII, this person worked at Bletchley Park, Britain’s secret codebreaking centre. His mission: crack the Enigma cipher used by N**i submarines — a code believed to be unbreakable.
He found a way.
Historians estimate his work shortened the war by 2–4 years and saved millions of lives. Winston Churchill later said this person made the single biggest contribution to Allied victory.
His work remained classified for decades. He died without public recognition.
🔹Then came the prosecution
His name was Alan Turing.
In 1952, a burglary at his home led police to discover he was in a relationship with a man. At the time, homosexual acts were still a criminal offence in the United Kingdom (“gross indecency”).
Turing was convicted. The court gave him a choice:
• prison
• or oestrogen injections — framed as “medical treatment”
He chose the injections to avoid prison. The course lasted a year. The effects included physical changes (such as breast growth), severe depression, and loss of libido. He also lost his security clearance — he could no longer do the work he had devoted his life to.
In 1954, at age 41, Turing was found dead from cyanide poisoning. A halfeaten apple lay beside his bed.
🔹Pride Month – a belated apology
In 2013 — 59 years after his death — Turing received a royal pardon.
In 2021, the Bank of England released a new £50 note featuring his portrait. It was the first British banknote to depict an LGBTQ+ person.
A symbolic gesture. A longoverdue recognition.
🔹Why this story still matters — for all of us
We don’t choose our genes. That includes the genes that influence who we love, how we feel, what makes us different from the people around us.
But we do choose how we respond to difference — in ourselves and in others.
Alan Turing’s life offers three quiet lessons:
1. Selfacceptance is hard. Turing couldn’t openly be who he was without risking everything. Many people still face that same fear today.
2. Acceptance from others is not automatic. Even extraordinary talent and service to one’s country did not protect Turing from punishment.
3. When acceptance is missing, we all lose. How many more breakthroughs — how many more lives saved — might Turing have given if he had been simply accepted for who he was?
This Pride Month, the flags and parades are part of the story. But the deeper part is this:
Learning to accept ourselves. And building families, communities, and societies that accept others — not despite their differences, but because every person deserves to be safe in their own skin.
🔹Alan Turing’s story is not only about parenting. It’s about all of us. The way we treat the “different” child, friend, colleague — that treatment shapes lives. Sometimes it saves them. Sometimes it doesn’t.
Let’s remember Turing. And let’s remember why acceptance — of self and of others — is never just a personal matter.