Turing statue and associated kerfuffle

Today, BP unveiled a statue of Alan Turing. Apparently, though, the associated
press release failed to mention that he was gay, and there's a bit of an uproar
accusing BP of homophobia. See, e.g.,

  http://uk.gay.com/article/5630

I feel this is a little bit of an overreaction. While Turing's sexuality would
clearly be important to people looking at, say, gay rights, or Turing's life as
a whole, his sexuality is by no means the primary thing of interest when
thinking about at his time at Bletchley Park. Rather, it's his achievements as
a codebreaker. 

I can't help but get the impression that there are some people who want Turing
to be remembered primarily as a figure in gay rights, rather than for his
enormous contributions not just to wartime codebreaking, but to human thought
in general. I think that would do him a disservice.

-- Matt

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Matt_Crypto
Blog: http://cipher-text.blogspot.com


	
	
		
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