Second World War code-breaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon for a 61-year-old conviction for homosexual activity.

Dr Turing, who was pivotal in breaking the Enigma code, arguably shortening the war by at least two years, was chemically castrated following his conviction in 1952.

news.sky.com/story/1186596/alan-turing-w...eaker-granted-pardon

It's not much more than 50 years, but oh how times have changed.

At last; but how about all those less high profile victims, some still alive and it's still going on. Tie that Paedohunter down, folks.

JK2006 wrote:
At last; but how about all those less high profile victims, some still alive and it's still going on. Tie that Paedohunter down, folks.

Not only a pardon,but an apology.

I'm a little intrigued as to what he's been given a pardon for?

1. The conviction? (in which case surely hundreds of others are entitled to the same?)

2. The sentence? A little harsh - but fairly normal at the time?

3. Societies' attitude?

More details please !

Any response from Alan on this? It seems a wee bit late for the poor man.

I don't like it one bit.
Turing suffered a huge injustice but so did many others, and in my opinion history should not be fiddled with and I wish people would stop apologising on my behalf.

A benign-Paedos Royal Pardon in 2073?

World Views wrote:
A benign-Paedos Royal Pardon in 2073?

A comprehensible post in 2014?

honey!oh sugar sugar. wrote:
I don't like it one bit.
Turing suffered a huge injustice but so did many others, and in my opinion history should not be fiddled with and I wish people would stop apologising on my behalf.

I have to say that I am with ITK and you on this one Honey honey. As despicable as the treatment that Alan and his fellow homosexuals was the past is not now and todays values did not apply then. At the time Turing was guilty as charged and treated how the law demanded he be. Unless a posthumous pardon and apology can be issued to ALL who were convicted for the same crime I can not approve of one man , however great, however badly mistreated, being granted such a pardon. If they REALLY thought so much of him at the time and considered him to have helped the country shorten the war they should never have treated him so lamentably in the first place.

I apologise to anyone in the Gay community who feels my opinion is an odious one but I say what I say not from an anti-gay point of view but as one who believes in the necessity for law and order and in an idealistic justice system. One rule for one and not for another just doesn't cut it...

In The Know wrote:
Second World War code-breaker Alan Turing has been given a posthumous royal pardon for a 61-year-old conviction for homosexual activity.

Dr Turing, who was pivotal in breaking the Enigma code, arguably shortening the war by at least two years, was chemically castrated following his conviction in 1952.

news.sky.com/story/1186596/alan-turing-w...eaker-granted-pardon

It's not much more than 50 years, but oh how times have changed.

In his budget speech yesterday, Osbourne said -

Mr Deputy Speaker, in my maiden speech here in this House I spoke of Alan Turing, the codebreaker who lived in my constituency, who did more than almost any other single person to win the war, and who was persecuted for his sexuality by the country he helped save.

I am delighted that he has finally received a posthumous Royal Pardon.

Now, in his honour, we will found the Alan Turing Institute to ensure Britain leads the way again in the use of big data and algorithm research.

I am determined that our country is going to out-compete, out-smart and out-do the rest of the world.

Some facts about Alan Turing and his conviction that rarely get mentioned :

He had illegal sex with a 19 year old labourer when he as a 42 year old professor of mathematics.

The age of majority at the time was 21 - so the 19 year old was legally a child and seen as a victim.

Turing tried to have the boy arrested for a burglary that he did not commit. In fact Turing had sex with the boy one last time (after giving him alcohol) before going to the police station with the glass that he drunk from, in order to see if the fingerprints matched those found at the burglary scene.

It is possible that Turing tried to frame the boy knowing he had nothing to do with the 'burglary' because he feared the boy was about to go to the police and reveal that Turing was 'abusing' him.

We do not know if Turing had sex with any other teenage boys and how old they were. We only know of this boy because of the 'burglary'.

Turing was not 'castrated'. He did not spend a day in prison. He was required to go through a mild hormonal treatment programme to curb his sexual desires for teenage boys. He embarked upon a fitness regime after his trial and appeared happier and healthier than ever.

He was allowed to resume his teaching career at the (then) prestigious University of Manchester. Compare his outcome with those of homosexuals today convicted of having sex with underage boys (sex offenders register, banned from teaching etc).

He likely did not commit suicide - his own biographer believes he died as a result of accidentally inhaling cyanide fumes (he had been experimenting with cyanide the day he died). His parents and friends were shocked, and refused to believe it was suicide because of how happy and content he appeared to be.

Turing was convicted as a result of the same puritanical 1885 criminal amendment act that raised the age of consent for heterosexuals from 12 to 16 and which is currently being used to persecute heterosexual men for having sex with willing teenage girls nearly half-a-century ago, even as we turn Alan Turing into a martyr for having illegal sex with a teenage lad who was considered a victim of child abuse.

UpsetAppleCart wrote:
The age of majority at the time was 21 - so the 19 year old was legally a child and seen as a victim.

So ... a 19 year old was not considered mature enough to decide who he wanted to have sex with - but was old enough to fight (and die) for his country ?

Make an awful lot of sense - NOT !

UAC - I think you'll find you are wrong about the age of majority - or age of consent… ANY gay sex at the time was illegal at the time (until 1967) as it still is today in Iran, Uganda and other places including other parts of Africa. The age of consent became 21 then (to furious objection by millions). It was made 18 in 1993 - to further furious protests from millions who considered men less competent to decide than women (the age of consent was 16 for hetero sex throughout this time). Only in 2000 (two days after I was arrested) was it equalised at 16 for both genders.

Alan Turing was terribly badly treated but so were many others. And still are today. Some posthumously.

@JK

I was referring to the age of majority - which was 21 at the time. Yes, homosexuality was illegal for everybody at the time, but the point was that the 19 year old was not arrested for homosexuality, Alan Turing was arrested for gross indecency with a 19 year old who was seen as a victim of Alan Turing, and under UK law at the time, was not considered an adult.

There was actually no law against 'homosexuality' as such. There was a law against 'gross indency' which was largely interpreted to my knowledge as applying to middle-aged homosexual men who had sex with teenage males and youths.

Perhaps readers can supply links to court cases of 40 year old men being prosecuted for having sex with other 40 year old men in the 1940's/1950's. To my knowledge there was none.

Really I'm just pointing out the hypocrisy of this. We're granting one dead man a royal pardon for being convicted under a Victorian puritanical feminist bill for having sex with a minor, and at the same time crucifying still living (and dead in the cases of Jimmy Savile) for alledgedly having willing sex with teenagers uder that same backward Victorian bill that has no more relevance to homosexuality in the modern world than it does to 'protecting' the virginity of unmarried teenage girls in the 21st slut walker society.

The only difference between Alan Turing and the Yewtree witch hunt victims is that Alan Turing broke a law that was seen as right and judged as child abuse in the time he comitted the offecnce, wheareas the Yewtree celebs are being tried for breaking laws that were seen as laughable at the time (the free love era) and the backward Victorian stain on liberal progress that they were and still are.

Why should Alan Turing have stuck to the heterosexual age of consent, given that that age of consent was determined in the same bill by the same people that criminalized homosexuality (in both cases an attempt to effectively criminalize all sex outside of marriage)?

Aren't teachers being discriminated against when they have to obey a different age of consent to the rest of the population? What about English people living in France who have to obey the UK age of consent (16) IN FRANCE where the age of consent is 15?

Why have YOU been turned into a pantomime monster for having illegal sex (rightfully or wrongly convicted) with teenagers in a different era, when at the same time we turn another homosexual into a saint for having illegal sex with a teenager in a different era (in fact a much more conservative era)?

I agree with much you say but - I reckon hundreds of similar age men were jailed for "cottaging" in that era. I urge you to buy and watch Victim - one of the best 60s movies and with a superb and brave performance by Dirk Bogarde (still in the closet as he chose to remain for all his life).

The overall point - about condemning people now for today's morality instead of for that of 50 years ago and of the total hypocrisy then (and now) around sexuality is valid.

If you'll excuse the expression I think we need to start from scratch.