Britain pardons 'father of computing' Alan Turing of Homosexuality conviction

[Looper]

Britain has granted a posthumous pardon to Alan Turing, the World War II code-breaking hero who committed suicide after he was convicted of the then crime of homosexuality.





Turing is often hailed as a father of modern computing and he played a pivotal role in breaking Germany's Enigma code, an effort that some historians say brought an early end to World War II.

He died in 1954 after eating an apple laced with cyanide, two years after he was sentenced to chemical castration for the "gross indecency" of homosexuality.

A coroner ruled that Turing committed suicide, though this has since been questioned.

Queen Elizabeth II has now pardoned Turing for "a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory", justice minister Chris Grayling said.
Homosexuality was decriminalised in Britain in 1967.

"A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man," Mr Grayling said.

Prime minister David Cameron said the code-breaker's work had saved "countless lives".

"Alan Turing was a remarkable man who played a key role in saving this country in World War II by cracking the German Enigma code," Mr Cameron said.

"He also left a remarkable national legacy through his substantial scientific achievements, often being referred to as the father of modern computing."
The Enigma code was used to encrypt communications between German U-boats in the North Atlantic ocean.

Turing's efforts to break it were virtually unknown to the public at the time of his death, as his work was kept secret until 1974.

Turing's landmark research into computing

Turing also published pioneering work on early computers, writing in a 1936 paper of a "universal Turing machine".

Having told people he was trying to "build a brain", his theory was the first to consider feeding programs into a machine as data, allowing a single machine to perform the functions of many - just like today's computers.

He lost his job at Britain's electronic eavesdropping agency GCHQ after he was convicted and poisoned himself with cyanide at the age of 41.

A GCHQ spokesperson said the agency was "delighted about the pardon".
The pardon is a victory for supporters, including leading scientists such as Britain's Stephen Hawking, who have long campaigned to clear Turing's name.

Former British prime minister in 2009, Gordon Brown, issued a posthumous apology to the code-breaker, saying he had been treated "terribly".

But the government rejected a call to grant an official pardon last year on the grounds that Turing was properly convicted of what was then a criminal offence.

More than 37,000 people signed an online petition last year calling for a pardon.

Pardons are usually only granted in Britain when the person is innocent of the offence and when it is requested by someone with a vested interest, such as a family member.

Turing's pardon is extremely rare in that it has been granted despite neither of these conditions being met.

Britain pardons 'father of computing' Alan Turing, who killed himself after homosexuality conviction - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)



How does that work? Surely every person convicted of homosexuality before it was decriminalised is now equally entitled to a pardon.

This is not the way a legal system works. Your criminality depends on the law at the time of your actions regardless of how unfair it may later seem. They can grant him honours to compensate for what seems, by today's standards, to be unfair treatment by an outdated law but granting pardons for criminal convictions following the repeal of the law is not correct.

He undoubtedly contributed crucially to the defeat of the Third Reich for which we are all in his debt but this is still not an appropriate way to deal with the unfortunate outcome from his conviction.

[harrybarracuda]

He undoubtedly contributed crucially to the defeat of the Third Reich for which we are all in his debt but this is still not an appropriate way to deal with the unfortunate outcome from his conviction.

"Unfortunate Outcome"?

He didn't have his library card privileges removed.

They drove him to suicide man.

I think a pardon is perfectly justified in these circumstances, and what does it cost?

Loads of other convicted shirtlifters asking to be pardoned as well? Why not, who really cares apart from the jesus wheezers?

[blue]

Mikhail Khodorkovsky gets pardoned in Russia and the western press are full of conspiratorial theories.

Turning gets pardoned in Britain and not a whisper that it might be similarly politically ( correct ) driven .

What next Jack the Ripper pardoned due to services rendered to the tourist /film industry?
Not much difference really, Jack liked ripping women up , Alan liked
ripping men's arseholes to ribbons ; both mentally ill .

I thought the bedrock of the law was that you obeyed it ALL, and not just the bits you like -otherwise every single law will be broken by someone using their twisted morality as an excuse.

Suicide case was he ? probably had a moment of lucidity and realised what an utter mess he had made of his life - what a skin crawlingly filthy life style he was leading, and was sick of being controlled by a gay demon / mental illness, and became thoroughly disgusted that he had let his family and all ancestors down.

[harrybarracuda]

Mikhail Khodorkovsky gets pardoned in Russia and the western press are full of conspiratorial theories.

Turning gets pardoned in Britain and not a whisper that it might be similarly politically ( correct ) driven .

What next Jack the Ripper pardoned due to services rendered to the tourist /film industry?
Not much difference really, Jack liked ripping women up , Alan liked
ripping men's arseholes to ribbons ; both mentally ill .

I thought the bedrock of the law was that you obeyed it ALL, and not just the bits you like -otherwise every single law will be broken by someone using their twisted morality as an excuse.

Suicide case was he ? probably had a moment of lucidity and realised what an utter mess he had made of his life - what a skin crawlingly filthy life style he was leading, and was sick of being controlled by a gay demon / mental illness, and became thoroughly disgusted that he had let his family and all ancestors down.

Admit, your uncle buggered you as a child, didn't he?

I'd go and see a therapist if I were you, that pent up rage could spill over at any moment.

The reason some laws get repealed is that the world has matured and realised that the stupid religious doctrines of old serve no purpose in modern, secular society. You may have noticed it is no longer permissible to dunk witches or burn them at the stake.

Khodorkovsky was convicted on tenuous evidence of money laundering and embezzlement, both crimes which I think should stay on the books.

His conviction was politically motivated, so it's a fair bet his pardon is, too.

I don't see what this pardon does other than provide a bit of closure to Turing's family. It doesn't affect me one bit.

But it clearly affects you, your quivering outrage is palpable.

But matched only by its irrelevance.

Let's face it, you have a pathological fear of those different to you, whether they be gays, pakistanis or negroes.

You're quite a pathetic character really.

[Rainfall]

Maybe one of the guys who ejaculate when penetrated, the perfect gay. And ashamed of it, it's a sin before the Lord.

[peterpan]

what bull shit, he was a bit bent but very clever

[blue]

The politically correct apologists here need to check the facts.
Turing was arrested for gross indecency in a public toilet, he probably had many many warnings but choose to continue this sick practice .

Gays have a morbid fascination with public bogs , normal people prefer to get out of those filthy places as fast as possible .
Not homos , they spend hours prancing about in there.
I bet there is not one gay who has not loitered in public toilets longer, than needed.

So Turing was given a 100% pardon including his ''gross indecency in a public place '' offence , which is still considered a crime today ......

The world has matured has it ? a modern society ?
he's pardoned by the QUEEN.
got to laugh at the irony ...

[Gerbil]

The politically correct apologists here need to check the facts.
Turing was arrested for gross indecency in a public toilet, he probably had many many warnings but choose to continue this sick practice .

Gays have a morbid fascination with public bogs , normal people prefer to get out of those filthy places as fast as possible .
Not homos , they spend hours prancing about in there.
I bet there is not one gay who has not loitered in public toilets longer, than needed.

So Turing was given a 100% pardon including his ''gross indecency in a public place '' offence , which is still considered a crime today ......

The world has matured has it ? a modern society ?
he's pardoned by the QUEEN.
got to laugh at the irony ...

This news has ruined Christmas for you, hasn't it?

[Looper]

I think a pardon is perfectly justified in these circumstances

I am not worried about gays either way but there is a legal principle at stake. A pardon means the state now recognises that you were innocent of the crime as convicted but Turing was guilty.

[peterpan]

As long as these boys don't try to stick one up my ass, who cares?
for me its a bit shitty, but so what?
Why do you want to poke in their business?
Envious maybe, do you secretly like a bit of Bum fun, Blue?

[wasabi]

So no pardon for the despicable crimes committed by the British government in WW1 when they murdered young boys by firing squad for having shell shock and not fighting.

[harrybarracuda]

The politically correct apologists here need to check the facts.
Turing was arrested for gross indecency in a public toilet, he probably had many many warnings but choose to continue this sick practice .

Gays have a morbid fascination with public bogs , normal people prefer to get out of those filthy places as fast as possible .
Not homos , they spend hours prancing about in there.
I bet there is not one gay who has not loitered in public toilets longer, than needed.

So Turing was given a 100% pardon including his ''gross indecency in a public place '' offence , which is still considered a crime today ......

The world has matured has it ? a modern society ?
he's pardoned by the QUEEN.
got to laugh at the irony ...

So you've given up dogging, Blue?

[blue]

Maybe it wasn't a public carsey Turing was arrested in .
but looking at the facts - it was still a typical hysterical gay drama, that hardly suggests he was clever ..

It seems he had a 19 year old ''boyfriend'' called Murray,
who nicked a £10 of Turing
Then Turings house is burgled,
He suspects his new bum chum, so gets a glass with Murrays fingerprints and plants it as evidence or something and fabricates a story about how he knows him.
He gets trapped in his own lies and under pressure blurts out the truth about Murray, and is arrested .

In December 1951, Turing met the 19 year-old working class lad, Arnold Murray. He took Murray to lunch, talked about his work on the “electronic brain”, and then asked him to his house that weekend. Although Murray did not turn up, they met again by chance in January, and started on an affair. Turing was protective, and he wanted to offer Murray a future, to open his mind to possibilities of science. Instead Murray took a tenner from Turing’s wallet, although he later “half convinced” Turing he hadn’t. When Turing’s house was burgled on January 23 the suspicion fell on Murray. Turing reported the burglary, and police officers in turn took fingerprints. On the advice of a solicitor, Turing wrote to Murray to revive the question of the missing tenner and to break off the friendship. Murray turned up on Turing’s door, angrily protested his innocence, and threatened to go to the police about the affair. He retracted the threat, then ended up in Turing’s bed after telling him he thought the burglary was committed by an unemployed acquaintance called Harry. In the night, Turing put away a glass with Murray’s fingerprints on it, which he then turned over to the police along with a fabricated story about how it had come into his possession. The police had in fact identified Harry’s fingerprints at the crime scene, and it did not take them long to figure out from his statement exactly what had been going on. When Turing was questioned he was trapped in a lie about how he knew Murray, and when confronted he nervously blurted out the truth. The detectives in charge of the case, who had the unlikely names of Mr Wills and Mr Rimmer, went after Turing for the crime of “Gross indecency contrary to Section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885”. In other words: homosexual conduct.

Read More at Polari Magazine | Turing Centenary: The Trial of Alan Turing for Homosexual Conduct, Written by Christopher Bryant, Copyright © Polari Magazine

Also the chemical 'castration' was chosen by Turing as an alternative to prison.
And was in fact oestrogen treatment ; this seems strange as you you think they would treat him with something that to him more of a man not less.

[billy the kid]

Every move, every word, they make has re-election in mind.
Slamming down Labour every chance they get
never has anything to do with the corrupt, greedy, irresponsible banksters.
politicking all the way to next election.
Odd indeed to pardon a dead guy.

[blue]

So you've given up dogging, Blue?

Cottaging:
Gay men hanging around in mens public shithouses is called cottaging.
It gets the name from the fact that the most favoured toilets tend to be in quiet parks and had been built to blend in, ie they looked like cottages .

Dogging:
.
While dogging , is done by both gay and normal people .
Going to mostly car parks and standing with thier noses pressed to the car window watching someone have sex inside , and maybe joining in .
This has it's dangers as maybe the couple don't want to be watched ,
so to stop themselves looking suspicious the voyeurs took a dog as a cover , to walk about with ,
hence the name dogging .

I've never done either Harry.

[harrybarracuda]

The detectives in charge of the case, who had the unlikely names of Mr Wills and Mr Rimmer

Call me Mr. Suspicious but how on earth could he get a fair trial?

[Rainfall]

What has the world come to? In the old days, war heroes could be tried and castrated for homosexuality. Now there are gay muslims in the upper house.

[blue]

interesting article here about Turing .
It's a review of a biography "Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges.
Talks about his attitude to young boys under 15.
seems the PC hero was a Paedo groomer , but that's not really surprising, as has been proved before on TeakDoor , most if not all gays are .

"Alan Turing: The Enigma" by Andrew Hodges [azdak]

Turing was a victim of prejudice, no doubt about it. The treatment of homosexuals by the society of his time was horrific. But reading between the lines of Hodges's text raises doubts about whether Turing's fate would have been any happier if he had lived in our own era. We may be more accepting of homosexuality, but we draw a firm line between the (acceptable) practice of homosexuality and the (utterly unacceptable) practice of paedophilia.
Turing, at the very least, comes close to crossing that line. Hodges cites a conversation he had with Robin Gandy, one of Turing's lovers (told to him, I presume, by Gandy himself, since he's listed as one of the sources) on the issue of whether one should persist in forcing one's attention on a boy of less than fifteen years if he declines them.
Hodges says rather coyly that Gandy had strong feelings on this issue because he had himself been put off sex for a long time by an "over-enthusiastic" suitor. Those are not the terms we would use today in talking about a child whose attempt to resist sexual advances by an older man was overridden. And it's noteworthy that it wasn't even at issue whether it was okay to approach sexually a child of under fifteen, merely that one should respect his wishes if he was reluctant to respond.

Another uncomfortable moment in the book occurs when Turing proposes to adopt a young Jewish refugee. His father at this point wrote him a letter saying "Is this wise? People will get the wrong idea."
I rather suspect that what he meant was "people will get exactly the right idea," and sure enough, Turing did go on a camping holiday with the boy and did make what Hodges calls "a gentle approach." Apparently, he was rebuffed and let the matter lie, but the whole episode looks uncomfortably like what we would now call "grooming" (and remember this was a child who had been separated from his parents under deeply traumatic circumstances). It was in the context of justifying making a pass at the boy, that Turing came up with the remark to the effect that no boy at a public school could possibly be inexperienced when it came to homosexuality.

His description of the Sherbourne schoolboys he went back to lecture to in 1953 as "luscious" is also rather discomfiting, although it might be dismissed as the kind of camp talk one gay man would use to another without actually meaning anything predatory by it. Then again, it might not.

[billy the kid]

what happens to all the other gays who were convicted before and since.
do they get a Pardon ?

[harrybarracuda]

what happens to all the other gays who were convicted before and since.
do they get a Pardon ?

No I think you only get it if you are a famous person. Excuse the pun, but they do appear to be on sticky legal ground here.