Skip to content

Be The Change - vlogbrothers

2010-06-14 · Hank · watch on YouTube · US politics & society · advocacy activism

Hank tells how Alan Turing, who helped win World War II and create the computer, was convicted for homosexuality and abandoned by Britain, and argues that change, though slow and hard for young people to see, happens when individuals change; he urges viewers to support the Trevor Project's Be the Change contest.

What is said

00:00:00 — Alan Turing's approaching 98th birthday: colossal nerd, helped win World War II, helped create the computer; code-making and code-breaking

  • ★★ Hank says the 98th birthday of Alan Turing, one of his favorite people though dead, is fast approaching. — 00:00:00
  • ★★ The description calls the Trevor Project the leading national organization for crisis and suicide prevention among LGBTQ youth, launching Be the Change during Pride Month. — 00:00:00
  • ★★★ Hank's reasons Turing is a favorite: he was a colossal nerd, helped win World War II, and helped create the machine the viewer is watching on. — 00:00:06
  • ★★ Turing not only built computers but programmed them to make codes for the English military and break the German military's codes. — 00:00:20
  • ★★ Hank says Turing did a lot for the world and especially the British government, which did not do a great job paying him back. — 00:00:41 · United Kingdom

00:00:48 — Turing's conviction for homosexuality, Oscar Wilde under the same law, hormone treatment, revoked clearance, death by cyanide apple in 1954; his country turned its back on him

  • ★★★ In the 1950s Turing went to court and a jury convicted him of being a homosexual; being gay was then illegal in England. — 00:00:48
  • ★★ Oscar Wilde was convicted under the same law and sentenced to two years' hard labour for being a homosexual. — 00:01:05
  • ★★★ Turing could choose two years in jail or hormonal treatment to decrease his libido; he chose the estrogen injections. — 00:01:13
  • ★★ After his conviction Turing's security clearance was revoked, he was barred from the computers he had developed, his name was tarnished, and homosexuals were implied to be spies. — 00:01:24
  • ★★★ Soon after, in 1954, Turing injected an apple with cyanide and ate it. — 00:01:34
  • ★★★ Hank says Turing did everything a person can to win his nation's support, saving thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of British soldiers' lives and creating world-changing machines. (hedged) — 00:01:40
  • ★★★ Because one thing about him was a little different, Hank says, Turing's entire country turned its back on him. — 00:01:55 · United Kingdom

00:02:00 — The Trevor Project's Be the Change contest; change is hard for young people to see; LGBTQ youth suicide; change happens slowly when individuals change

  • ★★★ Hank tells the Turing story to think about change: this week the Trevor Project is running a video contest called Be the Change. — 00:02:00
  • ★★★ Hank feels change is hard to see, especially for young people: at 15 you can't see how fast the world has changed, so it may seem nothing can change. (hedged) — 00:02:08
  • ★★★ That, Hank says, is when people get desperate, and some complete suicide because they happen to be lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning. — 00:02:26
  • ★★★ Thinking about Alan Turing shows how much has changed, Hank says, though there is still a lot of change to make. — 00:02:35
  • ★★★ Change never happens all at once, with everyone agreeing to be tolerant; it happens very slowly through many mechanisms, the most important being changing yourself. — 00:02:43
  • ★★★ If enough individuals change, change happens; that is why you can no longer go to jail for being a homosexual. — 00:02:57

00:03:07 — How to be the change: support the Trevor Project, watch and vote at memelabs.com, make a video; sign-off

  • ★★★ To be the change, Hank asks viewers to support the Trevor Project by watching and voting on contest videos at memelabs.com/trevorproject, or making their own. — 00:03:07

Threads in this video

BR2_6e37c824bd