Alan Turing Likely To Be Given Posthumous Pardon 210
pegdhcp writes with news that the UK government has signaled its intent to support a bill that would issue a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing, who is known for his work in defeating the German Enigma code machines in World War II and widely considered the father of computer science. Turing was charged with and convicted of "gross indecency" in 1952 for being gay. He was sentenced to chemical castration, and he committed suicide two years later.
"The announcement marks a change of heart by the government, which declined last year to grant pardons to the 49,000 gay men, now dead, who were convicted under the 1885 Criminal Law Amendment Act. They include Oscar Wilde. ... [Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon] told peers: "Alan Turing himself believed that homosexual activity would be made legal by a royal commission. In fact, appropriately, it was parliament which decriminalized the activity for which he was convicted. The government are very aware of the calls to pardon Turing, given his outstanding achievements, and have great sympathy with this objective That is why the government believe it is right that parliament should be free to respond to this bill in whatever way its conscience dictates and in whatever way it so wills."
Similar Gay Boy Scout Ban (Score:1, Interesting)
ThinkProgress notes that Gates has shown his support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) equality measures in the past, donating hundreds of thousands of dollars toward the Washington state marriage equality campaign.
The Boy Scouts has come under increasing fire lately for its longstanding ban on gay members, with poll numbers and a host of celebrities lending support to the cause.
Re:Screw them (Score:5, Interesting)
In the UK, it's all about "who you know". Anthony Blunt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthony_Blunt) was openly gay around the same time as Alan Turing. And he spied for Russia.
But because he was the " Surveyor of the Queen’s Pictures", nothing ever happened to him.
One rule of law for the elite, another for the commoners.
This isn't about Turing (Score:3, Interesting)
Geeks are the ones explaining in detail what GCHQ has been recording on Brits. Geeks are the ones who thought Turing was given a bad deal. So this is a fob to pretend that Cameron is somehow the friend of geeks, even as he's destroying the privacy right and making 'democracy' a joke word.
Seriously, fuck off Cameron, you were elected to fix the surveillance state, no token honor to Turing will fix what you've done Cameron, *no*, what you're *doing* Cameron. It's on-going. We get it, we voted for your to end the surveillance state and you let the policy decided by New Labour lead you. You are not a leader sir, you are an embarrassment.
Fuck off and resign. Turing would be ashamed to see how computers have been turned against the voters. Do you think he made a machine that could be used to persecute him? No.
Re:BSA Lifting Ban on Gay Scouts, but not Leaders (Score:5, Interesting)
Moms know.
Sometimes they do, sometimes they blissfully put up blinders and pretend that nothing's happening. When I told my mom I was a lesbian, her first words were "no you aren't", and it was 5 years and many girlfriends later that she finally acknowledged that I might be queer. To this day, she still hopes I'm going to find some guy and start popping out grandkids.
Re:Screw them (Score:4, Interesting)
The term "pardon" should stick in everyone's craw. The term belongs to another age, when royalty dare not admit that wrongs were committed. Did Alan Turing ever commit any act for which he should have said "I beg your pardon" to society? I think not. I know that pardons are granted for wrongful convictions as well as when the recipient is considered to have fulfilled their debt to society. I also know that in the UK a pardon implies moral innocence. Maybe it's silly of me to be hung up on the word itself, but I am. There ought to be a better term for nullification of convictions arising from laws which have been found to be unjust, immoral and evil, and the title of the nullification ought to make it clear that it isn't forgiveness, because the victim in these cases has done nothing which needs to be forgiven.
Think about it. Escaped slaves who were caught in the past: do we now really want to retrospectively say in magnanimity that we forgive them for escaping? If I were so descended, I would symbolically spit in the face of one so declaring in those terms.