Most mornings Dwight, my partner of 32 years, makes the first pot of the day. I get to enjoy the brew in bed while reading the New York Times.
Usually I’m squirming at the news of more dog whistles from the White House.
Delaying the Harriet Tubman $20 bank note is just one example of many. Originally it was going to be in circulation in 2020, but will now see the insides of wallets in 2028. Honoring an abolitionist and former slave is not good politics for the base.
It was therefore with gratitude I read, today, that Alan Turing would be on the face of the £50 note in the UK in 2021.
When I was a student in Manchester, England, I learned about the Turing Machine, the mathematical basis for today’s computers. At the time, I did not know about Turing’s wartime work at Bletchley Park because that only started to enter the public discourse in 1974. I also did not know Turing was gay, and had been given the choice of prison or castration leading to suicide in 1955 while on-staff at my alma mater.
There were too many secrets.
I knew that if I made my own sexuality known, I would damage my future. When I was working in Scotland in the late 1970’s, homosexual acts were still a criminal offence. When I moved to the United States in 1979, such acts were categorized as “moral turpitude” and I would be excluded from the country.
In the workplace I had to be careful, as I could lose my job simply on the grounds of my sexual orientation. My first project was funded by the US Navy, but mercifully I did not need security clearance. Being gay would automatically exclude me.
In 1990, the law was changed, and homosexuality was no longer grounds for exclusion from the United States. I started to let my guard down.
In 1993 I took up a position leading a small development team. When I was recruited for that company I chose not to reveal my sexuality. Later I read the recommendation from my recruiter. She wrote that although I lived alone, and seemed to have no social life, I appeared to be well-adjusted.
Once I got the job, I didn’t try to hide my sexuality. Within two months, one of the team members quit. Later I learned he could not accept working for someone who is gay.
To this day, I sometimes find myself on guard, changing pronouns, and generally not “flaunting” it. LGBTQ rights have made huge advances in recent years, but I have no illusions. Today, brown immigrants are the bogeymen; people like me could be next.
