Alan Turing and Pardons For Gay Men

Warning: mention of suicide, homophobia

[cynhanrahan]

Pardoning dead people is important, but pardoning live people makes a larger difference.

[dingleberrybob]

The way this hero was treated was absolutely appalling!

[katanah]

"You gotta be as gay as possible on the computer, or else Alan Turing died for nothing" is one of my favourite jokes about this.

[Shampyon]

Here in Australia, we never had anything that even went as far as the Alan Turing Law. Around 2014 the various state governments provided the opportunity to have your convictions vacated, with a lot of restrictions. Men convicted of consensual relations with other men (or in some cases, "attempt to procure" those relations - basically, gay men were entrapped by police and sent to jail for merely *flirting* with another man). They had to all individually apply to have their convictions vacated, which could take years. Many died while waiting for their claims to be processed. The claim also needed corroborating evidence from the men's partners, which posed many difficulties - many couldn't find the partner again, others found that the partner was in the closet and wouldn't testify, others had died in between the conviction and the opportunity for pardon. This means many men who deseserved to have their conviction vacated were instead stuck with a sex crime conviction on their record for the rest of their lives.

[alexandrajay]

Alan Turing's mother never believed he killed himself, she always maintained that he would have left her a note. she thought he was killed by the government. perhaps she was just a grieving mother in denial, but surely she would know him better than anyone, they were very close, so it's worth considering.

[MyTv-]

I’m in two minds about posthumous pardons. Feels like it’s done to clean once’s own hand then aid the victim. It would be better to accept full guilt for past behaviour, and ask for forgiveness. Alan Turing didn’t need any pardon, but the law do!

[CakeboyRiP]

Thank you for sharing this. People often forget that it was not that long ago lgbti people were persecuted just for being who they are and who they loved. And it is still happening around the world.

[MeFreeBee]

He did so much more than the code-breaking exploits he is famous for - like establishing the very theoretical basis of all modern computers. His work at Bletchley Park was also much more of a team effort than popular culture seems willing to acknowledge and many others made crucial contributions too.

[AlanCanon]

Kentucky here. Reading Alan's story in Hofstadter's book Godel, Escher, Bach as a kid in the 1980s had two effects on me: it made me realize I needed to abandon my parents' homophobic religion, and it made me want to become a computer scientist. I did both. Decades later I visited England on my (so far) only trip overseas, and visited Bletchley Park, doing which I since have urged upon anyone who can make it.

Turing did so much that potted biographies like these always omit much that he did, including writing a paper in the biological sciences which (so I read) is actually his most-cited paper.

[Trustworthy_McLegitimate]

I want an EXONERATION.
"Pardon" means he did something wrong that needs forgiveness.

[__-fmqv]

Honestly our treatment of Alan Turing post WWII has to be one of the most hideous things the government has done since the end of the war. This man saved millions and was the father of all modern computing, and this is how we repaid him.

[finv]

"Alright, so you shorted the war by 4 years and saved millions of lives; but.... you're gay"

[colmivers]

Pardoning the dead only helps the government forgive itself. Let those convictions stand forever as a black eye to never be forgotten

[Imbatmn]

Wow how nice of them to pardon a dead man that was killed just for living his life.

[AaronAnaya]

I remember years ago reading a story about a man who failed his A-Levels because his school forced him to undergo electroshock therapy after he was outed. He was asking for some type of compensation but as far as I know.

[klewis]

Turing was one of the leading minds in the mathematical concept of computability, which built the foundations for, and eventually lead to the development of, general purpose computers in the aftermath of WW2. It is a great sadness that he was treated so badly.

[CthulhusHeir]

What the British government did to Alan Turing is one of the greatest failings of humanity.

[comput]

He's not a Computer Scientist, he's THE Computer Scientist.

[Janne_Mai]

How invasive and inhumane. It's a tragedy that they won't pardon those who are still alive to benefit from it.

[MackenzieNerdyEMT]

His story is absolutely heart wrenching to me. He was a hero and was treated like a criminal for something he had no control over. I'm glad he got pardoned but pardoning her during life would have made a larger difference. I wish he knew what a difference he made in the world.