User:Ktournillon/LGBT people in science

LGBT people in science are students, professionals, hobbyists, and anyone else who is LGBT and interested in science. The sexuality of many people in science remains up for debate by historians, largely due to the unaccepting cultures in which many of these people lived. For the most part, we do not know for certain how people in the past would have labelled their sexuality or gender because many individuals lived radically different private lives outside of the accepted gender and sexual norms of their time. One such example of a historical person in science that was arguably part of the LGBT community is Leonardo da Vinci, whose sexuality was later the subject of Sigmund Freud's study.

History of LGBT people in science
Magnus Hirschfield, a German physician and sexologist, was one of the first advocates for homosexual and transgender rights. Hirschfield was most well known for his sexual theories and for activism. In 1897 Hirschfield created the first sexual rights organization, the Scientific Humanitarian Community, which aimed to explore and defend the rights of homosexuals. As one of the first advocates for homosexual rights, Hirschfield faced a great amount of backlash from newspapers claiming, for example, that "abnormal propensities" should be distanced from "mainstream medicine". Hirschfield was attacked by Nazis for being gay and Jewish, and he was beaten, sacked, and had his books burned. He was eventually forced into exile in France.

Writer, physician, tubercular radiologist, and transsexual Alan L. Hart made great strides in tuberculosis detection after earning his master's degree in radiology from the University of Pennsylvania in 1928. Hart sought psychiatric help from his professor, J. Allen Gilbert, for his "abnormal" attraction to women previous to his transition. The treatment of Hart was documented in the case study "Homosexuality and Its Treatment" in 1920. Hart requested a full hysterectomy, claiming he felt that he deserved to be sterilized for his "abnormal inversions".

Mathematician, computer scientist, logician, cryptanalyst, philosopher, and theoretical biologist Alan Turing was a prominent LGBT English scholar during the twentieth century that led a group of cryptanalysts in cracking the code of the Enigma Machine, ultimately helped turning the tide of World War II. Despite his service to the Allied cause, he was prosecuted in 1952 for homosexual acts and had most of his academic work covered up through the Official Secrets Act.

At the height of the Lavender Scare, astronomer Frank Kameny was fired by the US Army Map Service in 1957, shortly after his PhD from Harvard University. In 1958, he was barred from future employment in the federal government. Subsequently, radicalized, he became "one of the most significant figures" in the American gay rights movement. According to chemist Abhik Ghosh, the legendary porphyrin chemist Martin Gouterman, only a few years Kameny's junior, managed to escape similar persecution and was able to pursue a successful scientific career at the University of Washington.

Computer scientist Lynn Conway worked at IBM and invented a method for issuing multiple Out-of-Order instructions per machine cycle. She was also a pioneer of microchip design with many high-tech companies today using her work as the foundations for their technology. Conway suffered from gender dysphoria and underwent a gender transition in 1968. After Conway revealed her intent to transition to IBM, she was fired. After her transition, Conway kept her transition a secret with only a few close friends who knew. In 2000 when her story went public, she began to work in transgender activism to advocate for more transgender rights and transgender equality.

Notes on Nightingale: The Influence and Legacy of a Nursing Icon (2010) http://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB001250935/

The Autobiography of a Transgender Scientist (2018) http://data.isiscb.org/isis/citation/CBB732020704/

https://500queerscientists.com/ Current visibility movement for LGBT+ STEM professionals

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-018-0763-4 Ruth D. Gates