Alan Turing gets his royal pardon for 'gross indecency' – 61 years after he poisoned himself

[dipsydoodle]

Source: Independent

He was the father of modern computing whose work on the Enigma code at Bletchley Park is said to have shortened the Second World War.

But he was also gay and in those less enlightened times was chemically castrated by an ungrateful nation after being convicted of “gross indecency” with a man in 1952.

Now, nearly 60 years after his suicide from cyanide poisoning at the age of 41, Alan Turing has been officially pardoned by the Queen under the little-known Royal Prerogative of Mercy.

The pardon comes after a change of heart by ministers who had previously insisted that Turing was properly convicted of what at the time was a criminal offence.

Read more: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/alan-turing-gets-his-royal-pardon-for-gross-indecency--61-years-after-he-poisoned-himself-9023116.html

[octoberlib]

1. What happened to Turing was absolutely awful. nt

[beac]

15. And what mankind lost by his needless death is equally terrible.

Just imagine what he could have gone on to discover and invent if he hadn't been hounded to suicide by the horrible "moral code" of the time.

[eggplant]

2. Faster than Galileo, but still 60 years too late. n/t

[closeupready]

18. +1. The man was such an incredible genius.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. You mean to tell me there were people recently opposed to granting this pardon?

Yep. There were - fucking Tories.

One of the reasons I laugh when people give props to Andrew Sullivan. He still identifies as a Tory.

[christx30]

6. You wanna read something terrible?

Get on any conservative website like FR and do a search for Turing. They are all along the lines of "Yeah he was instramental in defeating the Nazis and all that. Fine. Whatever. But he was gay!" (Actual quote about Turing: "Never trust a poofer.&quot That's all they care about. If Neil Armstrong had been gay, that's all they would have cared about. To hell with landing on the moon.

[bucolic_frolic]

10. Do the reactionaries still use

the 1950s super-pejorative term "fruitcake"?

Or have they modernized their intolerance?

[christx30]

17. As the only form of diversity

they will accept, they use all kinds of derogatory terms when describing LGBT people. I read it from time to time just to check it out and I fully expect to pick up the newspaper and see Eisenhower as president.

[theHandpuppet]

24. I was just visiting the Science Group this morning...

... watching a video on a science experiment when out of the blue the narrator flippantly called another guy a pansy. I was appalled and it has really upset me this morning... but apparently no one else even noticed the slur.

[Smarmie Doofus]

11. If Jesus was gay they would have....... hmmmm .....never mind. n/t

[cosmicone]

4. Remember Turing

every time you fill out a CAPTCHA.

[Ken Burch]

5. Turing was the victim of the great double-bind gay men and lesbians were stuck in back then.

They were barred from positions involving government secrecy because they were "subject to blackmail" if their sexual orientation were discovered by enemies-and the reason they WERE "subject to blackmail" was BECAUSE they'd lose their jobs if their sexual orientation was discovered.

If the governments involved had just said "we don't CARE what they do in their private lives" blackmail wouldn't have been possible.

[bucolic_frolic]

9. They don't want to give potential criminals

any ideas. Making it a prominent public issue for debate would
create an avalanche of cases and victims.

[MsPithy]

7. Good!

Should have never happened. Just think what Turing could have accomplished with another 50 years, living his life in peace and contentment, as we all deserve.

[byronius]

12. He was the single human being most responsible for the Allied Victory in WWII.

That statement is not hyperbole. Winston Churchill is the second most responsible single human being for choosing Turing.

Allied commanders were able to read every Nazi battlefield order in real time, often before the Nazis could decrypt their own messages.

He's also the father of modern computer theory. An incredible mind.

His death has left a stain on the British nation that this pardon scarcely washes away.

[freshwest]

19. Agreed. I had no idea he'd been so mistreated by the nation he saved. Disgusting. n/t

[theHandpuppet]

23. +100

Well said.

[cpwm17]

13. It's too bad that some sick perverts ruined Alan Turing's life

I wish he had received his pardon while he was still alive

[NYC Liberal]

16. Good...but will EVERYONE convicted under that law be pardoned as well?

[dipsydoodle]

20. I take your point

but there is no provision within our law to declare that what was once a criminal offense, although no longer the case , was not so at the time.

Do you have any such provision with your law / constitution ?

[NYC Liberal]

27. Why can the same thing that was given to him not be given to everyone else convicted?

Surely if it's possible to do it for one person, it's possible to do it for multiple - no?

[dipsydoodle]

28. As I tried to explain they'd need to change a law retrospectively

with respect to a much earlier time period which has never been done so there is no precedent.

With regards use of what's known as the Royal Prerogative of Mercy this is only the fourth time its been used since WW2 where on each occasion a special case was made solely for an individual.

[blkmusclmachine]

21. ,

,

[malthaussen]

22. I'm sure his shade is whooping it up over it.

These pardons-long-after-you're-dead always make me scratch my head, but I guess better to be pardoned than otherwise.

-- Mal

[bitchkitty]

25. "his shade"

Are you from Louisiana, by any chance?

[malthaussen]

26. Nope, never been there. n/t

[grahamhgreen]

29. Yeah, he was only key in winning WWII, is all!