NewsQueek

Jon “maddog” Hall, the well-known free software advocate, writer for Linux Magazine and executive director of Linux International, published an essay recently titled In Honor of Alan Turing: A message from the sponsor announcing that he’s gay. In the essay, he describes how he didn’t tell his Christian fundamentalist parents, but notes that computer science has historically been:

a haven for homosexuals, trans-sexuals and a lot of other “sexuals”, mostly because the history of the science called for fairly intelligent, modern-thinking people. Many computer companies were the first to enact “diversity” programs, and the USENIX organization had a special interest group that was made up of LGBT people

The essay notes that the anniversary of Alan Turing’s birth and the campaign against marriage equality in the U.S. prompted him to reconsider not speaking out publicly.