There’s been a recent petition on Change.org to ask the British Government to pardon all those men who, like Alan Turing, were convicted for being homosexual or bisexual and other states of “gross indecency” during the 20th century. Alan Turning was granted a full posthumous pardon by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013, which was the right thing to do. However, many other men were convicted back on those narrow-minded days, and they’ve not yet been pardoned.
Alan Turing was the genius who developed the Turing Machine, which helped the Allies break the cyphers developed the Enigma Machine in WWII. (Except for, of course, the few dreadful times that they had to pretend that they didn’t know the way to break the code, so that the Nazis would keep using the same code.) Alan Turing was a hero, and did not deserve to be convicted, nor did the 49,000 men who were simply living their lives.
So here we go, let’s get the rest of these men pardoned. Is it the right thing to do? Yes. Is it time? Yes. To paraphrase President Obama, “It’s 2015 already!!!”
I believe that that the heart should not be judged by who it loves, and that people should not be judged for following their hearts.
For more, you can read about the group who initiated the petition, and look up the new movie about Alan Turing called “The Imitation Game,” starring Benedict “Cumberbumby” Cumberbatch .
