> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 1993 17:01:25 -0500 (EST) > From: ESTESWL@RASCAL.GUILFORD.EDU (SCIENCE, MIRACLES, MONKEYS FOR PRAYER) > Subject: QUEER MATHEMATICIANS > > DOES ANYBODY OUT THERE KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT QUEER > MATHEMATICIANS? I WILL BE IN A SEMINAR NEXT SEMESTER > AND THE SEMINAR IS A HISTORY OF MATH KIND OF THING. I WANT > TO DO SOME WORK ABOUT QUEER MATHEMATICIANS AND I NEED TO GET A RUNNING START. Will - The history and philosophy of mathematics fascinates me greatly (I considered a major in it), but I've never approached it from a gay perspective. Perhaps Ron Buckmire or Mathemagician can provide some assistance. I remember seeing a book on black mathematicians and women mathmaticians in the library but I doubt if one exists for LesBiGay ones. Best of luck in your class and please keep me updated of any new information you might obtain. Try these resources for some help: 1) LIS stands for Lesbians in Science and is a list for lesbians in industry, universities, government labs, etc. Send subscription requests to ZITA@JUNO.PHYSICS.WISC.EDU; send postings to LIS@JUNO.PHYSICS.WISC.EDU. 2) The National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals operates list, NOGLSTP. Send subscription requests to NOGLSTP-REQUEST@ELROY.JPL.NASA.GOV. 3) The LesBiGay sub-group of MENSA, an international organization for individuals who score among the top 2%. Contact them at: Le Gambit, Box 35822, Dallas, TX 75235. The most famous gay mathematician I know of is Alan M. Turing (1912-1954), whose life was dramatized in the play, "Breaking the Code." Turing is most famous for his pioneering theories in computer science (a "Turing Machine" is considered the ultimate test to determine whether artificial intelligence has been achieved) and his breaking of the German code, Enigma. Here is some information of Turing (note that the sources disagree on how many counts of 'gross indecency' he was charged with): (from The Alyson Almanac, a gay reference that I highly recommend) "British mathematician. Turing, who played an instrumental role in the defeat of Hitler, met his own destruction six years later when he was charged with twelve counts of 'gross indecency.' Turing was aprodigy obssessed with the concepts that paved the way for the modern computer. At the age of thirty, he joined the British intelligence project at Bletchley Castle and masterminded the cracking of Enigma, the German secret code. Thanks to his genius, the Allies obtained access to Hitler's most secret communications, thus significantly shotening the war. After his first love, Christopher Morcom, died of tuberculosis, Turing spent most of the rest of his life seeking to replace him. One was his later lovers was Arnold Murray, a working-class boy whom Turing reported to the police when he suspected him of burglary. Turing naively revealed his sexual relationship with the boy and found himself on trial. The classified status of his wartime activities made it impossible to this information to save him, and he was forced to choose between prison and "organotherapy," hormone treatments which caused him to grown breasts and develop chemical depression. Turing died in 1954 of cyanide poisoning, an apparent suicide." (from The Gay Book of Lists, by Leigh W. Rutledge) "A burglary in Turing's home led police to the discovery of a sexual involvement between the mathematicisn and a nineteen year-old boy; Turing was arrested and charged with six counts of 'gross indecency.' Because of his international standing as a scientist, the court sentenced him to probation, but with the stipulation that he undergo medical treatment for his homosexuality. The treatment consisted of a series of female hormone injections to eliminate his libido -- in other words, chemical castration. The injections left him impotent and caused him to grow feminine breasts; they also impaired his thinking. Barely two years after the arrest, and only a year after completing the court-ordered therapy, he committed suicide by eating an apple dipped in cyanide."