Wednesday 11 January 2012

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!

It only seems like 5 minutes since my last blog post but it was actually over two months ago. In that time I have been singing with my choir (out Aloud, Sheffield's LGBT Choir) in Germany, Meadowhall and the Winter Gardens, visiting family, graduating and finally having a rest over Christmas.



Here I am in the cap and gown with my very proud Mum!

As I have been so busy lately, I don't have much to report on the Gay history project, but today I have created a Facebook group for it. Find it here http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1239631301&ref=pymk#!/groups/306596282709747/

I am also planning a small event at Sheffield Hallam University to disseminate what I found during my inital research. This will be some time in February, so watch this space for more updates.

Lastly I want to metion that 2012 is Alan Turing Year! For those who are unaware, Alan Turing was a gay mathematician who, during World War Two was placed at the top secret Bletchley Park to work on cracking the now infamous Enigma Code. He was highly successful there and is credited by many as having changed the course of the Second World War (for the better, of course).
After the war, his work still highly secret, Turing went to Manchester to work as an academic. It was there that he was reported for being a Homosexual. For men to have sexual contact with other men at this time was still illegal, and Turing was found guilty and given the opportunity to undergo 'corrective' treatment instead of prison. This treatment consisted of taking various male hormones, thought at the time to reverse the desire for Homosexual behaviour. It was also known as chemical castration and was highly unpleasant for the 'patient' both mentally and physically to go through. By 1954 Alan Turing had been rejected by the establishment, considered a threat to National security and committed suicide on 7th June of that year. 2012 marks the 100th year since Turing's birth. Many organisations have decided to mark the occasion by running lectures and exhibitions in his honour. You can find out more about this here http://www.mathcomp.leeds.ac.uk/turing2012/ and follow updates on Twitter here https://twitter.com/#!/Turing100in2012 and here https://twitter.com/#!/AlanTuringYear