ALAN TURING

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A revered asset to our soceity in the fields of Mathematics and Computer sciences, who lived in England and was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts with a 19-years-old man at the times when homosexuality was considered to be a cirimal offence in the UK. He ,after his conviction, as an alternative for a lifelong prison, chose to be chemically castrated and died because of cyanide poisoning during the 2 years of his punishment, in 1954 just before his 42nd birthday.

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His contributions had a great impact in the development of the society. He took part in the development of mathematical logic with his well-known and important theorem and published papers, he developed the idea of algorithm and illustrated it by a significant hypothetical computational machine. This is also considered to be the one of the most substantial and important former models of Computer Sciences and a lot of technological devices and discoveries. He also had an undeniable impact on England's WW2 history when he was working at the Foreign Offices and helped Britain to decode the German Enigma Codes which was considered to be unbreakable thereby helping UK to surpass Germany in the war. His last contribution was the Chemical Theory of Morphogenesis ( morphogenesis: the biological process that causes an organism to develop its shape.)

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The mathematician whom I have talked above -who probably a lot of you have guessed- is Alan Mathison Turing. Turing always had a great passion for sciences and mathematics. To make clear the discoveries and inventions talked about above; his contribution to the field of Mathematics was with his well-known theorem “ Turing’s proof”. Turing after working on some certain mathematical theorems developed the idea of algorithm -which is basically a series of procedures that can be followed blindly- but then he proceeded to prove that even though algorithms usually can be used in any mathematical problems, not in all of them. The theorem basically stated that some purely mathematical yes-no questions can never be solved by computation. Turing also discovered the Central Limit Theorem anew thus elected as a Fellow of King’s.He also invented an abstract machine to illustrate the idea of algorithm thats called Turing’s machine or a-machine(automatic machine) that intended to investigate the extents and limitations of what can be computed. He also discovered a decoding system and broke the German Code that had been such an enigma for Britain.

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It’s devastating to see someone -who took part and contributed greatly to the development of our society in certain aspects- suffer from such dogmatic beliefs as homophobia and not, for so long even after his death, acquired the attention and respect that he deserved from the people solely because of his sexual tendencies.

 

ELTON JOHN

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Another preeminent contributor of our society -who is an English singer, songwriter, composer and pianist- has great impacts in the Rock genre and influenced many new musicians and artists by his arresting songs. He has sold over 300 millions records worldwide making him one of the best selling music artists of all time. On top of that, he has more than fifty “ Top 40” hits in the US Billboard Hot 10 and UK Singles Chart. He has won many prestigious awards including 5 Brits, 5 Grammy and 2 Academy awards. He was ranked the most successful male solo artist of all times by the Billboard and RollingStone has ranked him the 49th most influential musicians of the rock and roll era. He was knighted by Queen Elizabeth for his “ great services to music and charitable services” .He did what people thought to be impossible and achieved seven consecutive #1 Album between 1972-75. By doing this he might even be considered as a legend in the music industry. Moreover, he was inducted in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and wrote songs for Broadway. He has also been involved in the movements against AIDs since the 1980s and formed an AIDs foundation. He not only influenced many musicians to come and the rock and roll genre itself, he also has a special place in people’s hearts. He is one of the most important figures in Rock and Roll history.

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This admirable musician I have been talking about is no one else than the well-known and loved Elton John, himself . Everything John released was loved and frantically listened to around the globe. Most of us still listen to his undying songs after all this time. Some of his most famous songs are “I Am Still Standing”, “Tiny Dancer” and “ Rocket Man”. Elton John announced his bisexuality in 1976 and has been openly gay since 1988. After the legalization of the same-sex-marriage in the UK, John married David Furnish. John is also a very inspirational figure in the LGBTQ+ community and has said some very evoking and motivating words in his interview with Variety . “ Just be yourself” said John “Don’t let anybody do you down. I’ve been very privileged because I’m in a business that kind of accepts gay people. There are kids that aren’t privileged. They come from poor backgrounds. Their parents don’t understand; religion gives them a hard time.” continuing his message for young people “ Be proud of yourself. There are so many wonderful diverse people in the world — straight people, gay people and transgender people. We’re all God’s kids. People who should know better in places of responsibility and attack gay people, transgender people ... they claim to be close to God, but they couldn’t be further away from God if they tried.”

 

SALLY RIDE

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She is not only a barrier-breaker in the aspect of being the earliest space traveller who is recognized as LGBTQ+ but also who is the first American and 3rd in the overall women who had travelled to space in 1983 by overcoming the discriminatory policies and a sexist society. It should also be noted that she still remains the youngest person (32) ever to travel to space. In these senses she can be considered as to be one of the most inspirational figures for young people. She joined NASA in 1978 and before leaving it she flied on the Orbital Challenger twice. She then proceeded to work in the Stanford University’s Center for International Security and Arm Control and took part in the research of California University in nonlinear optics and Thopson scatterings. Furthermore, she was the only person who participated in both the “Challenger” and “ Columbia Space Shuttle” disasters’ investigations. In pop culture because of her utmost inspirational accomplishments she has multiple songs written about her or mentioning her including “ We Didn’t Start the Fire” by Billy Joel. She was also mentioned in many books, movies and TV shows. It’s clearly undeniable that she is the one of the most inspiring figures and has greatly contributed in the development of the society.

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This inspiring physicist and astronaut whom I have talked about above is Sally Rider. Sally Rider overcoming all the obstacles on her way to accomplishing what she is passionate about is definitely one of the most important figures in our society and a big role model for the young people. Rider was married to Steven Hawley in her years in the NASA and was in a private relationship with the Former Women’s Tennis Association player Tam O’Shaughnessy. It’s sad to see that Rider had to cover up her lesbian relationship by remaning married to Hawley and had never fullly and openly revealed her relationship before her death due to her secretive personality according to her sister and the dogmatic society she was living in at the times.

 

LEONARDO DA VINCI

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Another inspirational figure, this time coming way back from the others, who has an indisputable contribution in an uncountable amount of aspects and fields of the society such as engineering and art,etc. He was a lot of things and almost has either touched upon or be pioneer of a lot of important understandings, developments and inventions that we still are using in the 21st century. He was definitely a man way ahead of his time; as Sigmund Freud said “ He was like a man who awoke too early in the darkness, while others were all still asleep.” He established the infrastructure of the understanding of the human body by leaving sketches of muscles,tendons, skulls, skeletons,etc. to the coming generations; creating some of the first drawings of human organs and studying physiology; making wax mold of brain and heart. His most famous and well-known depiction of the human body that still being accepted to have the perfect proportions “ Vitruvian Man” is an ever-undying masterpiece. He was also a pioneer in the field of aviation. He designed one of the first parachutes that will be later on and took 3 centuries to actually build it. The predecessors of nowadays helicopters “aerial screw” was also designed by him and he wrote extensive studies on the gravity for human flight that will come handy later on in the deviation of the projects of aerodynamics. He also had a special passion in military weapons; designing series of weapons that still be recognized even now. He created - usually on the sketches- the first usable versions of scissors, diving suits, portable bridges,etc. On top of that he also built the some of the first measuring devices like odometers and anemometers. Despite his scientific endeavors he also left some really important and valuable paintings as his legacy to the art field. Unfortunately, by the end of his time he failed to conclude a lot of his paintings and projects.

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This important asset to our society who worked in multiple fields of life from engineering to anatomy, to weaponry to art; whom we may have remembered from his utmost beautiful works like Mona Lisa and The Last Supper is no one else than the “ Renaissance Man” Leonardo Da Vinci, himself. Unfortunately, we may never be 100% certain about Da Vinci’s personal life since he lived in the 1400s; albeit that does not mean historians do not have any speculations and theories. It should be noted that although same-sex-relationships was forbidden at the time, the general sexual norms and the way people viewed the topic was monumentally different from now (it was more accepted) . Da Vinci when he was 23 was accused of sodomy(same-sex-reationship) by an anomymous denouncitaon to the Florentine authorities. Later on the report was dropped due to the insistence of the source’s on remaining anonymous. Moreover, historians and Leonardo scholars speculate that Da Vinci had relationships with both of his assistance; Gian Giacomo Caprotti (known as; Sali) and Francesco Melzi. Also the later coming artist Loazzo confirmed scholars’ suspicions by stating that Da Vinci’s relationship with Sali was strictly sexual. By thorough and thorough observations of the sources and Da Vinci’s own pieces ,academics concludes that Da Vinci was most probably homosexual. Although according to Freud it should be considered that Da Vinci’s homosexuality was rather latent than acted upon.

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I think we, as a society, should not forget that sexual tendencies have got nothing to do with a person’s endeavors, abilities, social statuses and contributions to the society. Homosexuality comes naturally and if we even take a little of our time to try to understand this, we can see that it is actually quite common in nature itself. It is also a strictly personal topic and should not affect a person’s life and how they are being perceived by others in any way. As can be seen above all the people whom I have talked about are the ones who genuinely changed the society itself for the better, who in a variety of ways really helped people and whom we all should be inspired by. Those people, too, had faced obstacles in their life put by the so called dogmatic “social norms” but they are still the few of the lucky ones by being able to become who they are and show the world what they could do. Unfortunately, this is not always the case for everyone. People should understand that homosexuality, has got nothing to do with someone’s capabiltiy, but if the majority of the society keeps repressing the LGBTQ+ community members and do not give them the equality of opportunity, we, as the society, will keep losing all the promising young people who might one day be the future generation’s Da Vinci or Sally Ride. If people keep living by regressing old social morals and norms, they will prevent future’s Elton Johns and Alan Turings to rise. It should not be forgotten that all these social norms and morals- that some people still strictly acted upon- were decided in the old times but we are living in a new world, a new era right now. If we truly want the best for ourselves we need to become one as a society and stop discriminating against people for something that is so intrinsic and natural. That I believe is one of the first essential steps that should be taken to progress and develop into a better world.

 

REFERENCES

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https://www.theguardian.com/science/2015/aug/23/alan-turing-letters-reveal-battle-sexuality

https://books.google.com.tr/books?hl=en&lr=&id=C9WQbm4ovFoC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=alan+t uring&ots=pzkOk_yJMT&sig=15o2hxASjGZjbx-0_WFOzE3q3u4&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=al an%20turing&f=false

Erlewine, Stephen Thomas. "Artist Biography [Elton John]". AllMusic. Retrieved 31 March 2014. "Elton John". Forbes. Retrieved 15 January 2020.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elton_John#Honours _and_ Awards

https://variety.com/2019/music/features/elton-john-on-being-gay-1203248152/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride

https://www.historyextra.com/period/renaissance/leonardo-da-vinci-relationship-salai-sexuality-e vidence/

https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20191107-the-men-who-leonardo-da-vinci-loved https://www.history.com/topics/renaissance/leonardo-da-vinci

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