fighting ignorance at IBM

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

We just had Diversity Days at IBM, here in Austin, TX.

Essentially, Diversity Days showcases the various minority groups at each site, allowing them to educate the campus about that particular group.

I handled the EAGLE group booth this. EAGLE is the tedious anacronym for Employee Alliance for Gay & Lesbian Empowerment.

This year we were supposed to showcase people in the high tech field who were also a member of that minority. EAGLE put on displays about Alan Turing. Turing is most famous as the British mathematician who helped crack the Nazi codes during WWII. He’s also known for his work in logic and laying down the theoretical foundations for the digital computer.

As part of the fair and to get people to visit each booth, we had a contest. Everyone was given a sheet of questions and told to find the answers at each booth at the fair. Of course, our question and answer related to Alan Turing.

I was pleasantly pleased to keep hearing people murmuring “I didn’t know Alan Turing was gay!” as they visited out booth. They certainly knew who Turing was, this being a computer related industry, but finding out he was gay, and helping overcome another little bit of ignorance was very satisfying!

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You would love my friend Brendan. From the way Brendan talks about Alan Turing you’d think the man was his father.

You did know, of course, that Turing died as a result fo eating a cyanide-poisoned apple after taking estrogen as a punishment for being gay . . . grew breasts, wrote his mother about it. He died thinking he was Snow White.

3

…and that he looks EXACTLY the actor Derek Jacobi? :slight_smile:

Yes, I know about his trial and the resultant treatment. Which is really a tradgey considering what the man did to help England in her hour of need. His cause of death is still suspicious. Suicide or poisoned? Only the dead Mr. Turing really knows.