For most gay men, the question of who knew would be of colossal significance,

对于绝大多数男同性恋者来说，"谁知道"这个问题是意义重大的，

and life would be rigidly divided into two compartments, one for those who knew, and one for those who did not.

他们的生活会因此划分成两面，一面是与知道的人来往，另一面是与不知道的人来往。Blackmail depended as much upon this fact as upon the legal penalties.

勒索正是利用了这种划分，当然也利用了法律制裁。

The question was important to Alan too, but in a rather different way:

图灵也不例外，对他来说，这个问题同样重要，只是表现得不太一样。

it was because he did not wish to be accepted or respected as the person he was not.

他不愿意看到，人们接受并尊敬另外一个自己，

He was likely to drop a remark about an attractive young man, or something of the kind, on a third or fourth meeting with a generally friendly colleague.

所以他总是对同事或见过几次的朋友，评论某个诱人的小伙子。

To be close to him, it was essential to accept him as a homosexual;

要想和图灵交往，接受他的同性恋身份是很重要的，

it was one of the stringent conditions he imposed.

这是他的择友标准。

Exposure, therefore, held no intrinsic terror for him.

因此对图灵来说，同性恋身份的曝光，并没什么实质性的威胁。