Alan Turing To be Pardoned

[bcohen7719]

The latest news from England is that Alan Turing is finally to be "pardoned"

(for sexual offenses) by the British Government.

 

This is the [gay] man who quite possibly saved the Allies from losing to the Nazis.

 

Some additional background, below.

 

BC

 

[video=youtube;g7_WzNzHwJY]

[bostonman]

For those of you who know opera - "e morto...or gli perdono"???

 

i.e. what's really the point in pardoning a man who died almost 60 years ago? Maybe "pardon" is the wrong word (in a number of ways)?

 

Maybe it's the British Government who should be pardoned for shunning him (and castrating him), if now they're admitting they were wrong about it?

[oceansunshine]

Thanks for the video. Ever since I started studying computer science, Alan Turing and his wok interested me. One day, as part of my "bucket list", I want to visit Bletchley Park and study some of the related British history.

 

Last year, Google helped sponsor thru the Bletchley Trust an Alan Turing version of the board game MONOPOLY by comitting to buy 5000 copies of the game itself to insure a production run of the game was published. I bought some copies myself as gifts and one for me. :-)

 

Some information here on the Turing version of the game and another to buy it (and helping the Bletchley Park Trust:

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2012/sep/10/alan-turing-monopoly-board-google

 

and

 

http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/shop/p.rhtm/130853/692565-Special_Edition_Alan_Turing_Monopoly_Set.html

[+ Charlie]

Somehow an apology seems more appropriate than a pardon.

[+ beethoven]

WELL SAID, Charlie. The government should apologize.

[Guest]

WELL SAID, Charlie. The government should apologize.

 

It looks like they did apologize, some 4 years ago...

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/sep/11/pm-apology-to-alan-turing

[bcohen7719]

For those of you who know opera - "e morto...or gli perdono"???

 

i.e. what's really the point in pardoning a man who died almost 60 years ago? Maybe "pardon" is the wrong word (in a number of ways)?

 

Maybe it's the British Government who should be pardoned for shunning him (and castrating him), if now they're admitting they were wrong about it?

 

Bostonman,

 

Fair enough, and well said. Amongst Turing's admirers--for who he was, for what he did, for whom he helped--

the issue has troubling for some time. Those on this forum more knowledgeable about British law might be able to help out. i understand the British government kept arguing his conviction could not be overturned because "that was the law at that time"--i.e., there was no miscarriage of justice. When it comes to a person who quite possibly saved the world, this seems flimsy. For those of us who are gay, it becomes outrageous.

 

More, below.

 

BC

 

http://www.care2.com/causes/alan-turing-still-a-criminal-in-the-eyes-of-the-law.html

[uwsman2]

So it's definitely time to put him on a commemorative postage stamp, and erect a statue in London at some appropriate spot.

[oceansunshine]

So it's definitely time to put him on a commemorative postage stamp, and erect a statue in London at some appropriate spot.

 

yes......and one in the USA too as he helped end WWII 2 years or more early which saved American lives as well!

[Steven_Draker]

In 2001 in Manchester a monument was erected in his honor where he's holding the forbidden fruit.

 

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b8/Alan_Turing_Memorial_Closer.jpg/450px-Alan_Turing_Memorial_Closer.jpg

 

There's a petition to erect a statue of Turing on the fourth plinth at Trafalgar Square.

[oceansunshine]

Alan got the pardon today from the Queen.

 

From the Dailymail web site in the UK:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2528697/Queen-pardons-wartime-codebreaking-hero-Alan-Turing.html

 

 

From CNN:

 

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/24/world/europe/alan-turing-royal-pardon/index.html?hpt=hp_c3

 

 

Text from CNN:

 

(CNN) -- Alan Turing, a British code-breaker during World War II who was later subjected to chemical castration for homosexual activity, has received a royal pardon nearly 60 years after he committed suicide.

 

Turing was best known for developing the Bombe, a code-breaking machine that deciphered messages encoded by German machines. His work is considered by many to have helped change the course of the war and save thousands of lives.

 

"Dr. Turing deserves to be remembered and recognized for his fantastic contribution to the war effort and his legacy to science," British Justice Secretary Chris Grayling said in a statement Tuesday. "A pardon from the Queen is a fitting tribute to an exceptional man."

 

Turing's castration in 1952 -- after he was convicted of homosexual activity, which was illegal at the time -- is "a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory and which has now been repealed," Grayling said.

 

Two years after the castration, which Turing chose to avoid a custodial sentence, he ended his life at the age of 41 by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

 

Supporters have long campaigned for Turing to receive greater recognition for his work and official acknowledgment that his punishment was wrong.

An online petition in 2009 that drew tens of thousands of signatures succeeded in getting an apology from then Prime Minister Gordon Brown for Turing's treatment by the justice system in the 1950s. Brown described the Turing sentence as "appalling."

The German messages that Turing cracked at the British government's code-breaking headquarters in Bletchley Park provided the Allies with crucial information. The German messages were encoded by Enigma machines, which Adolf Hitler's military believed made its communications impenetrable.

Turing was considered a mathematical genius and later developed the Turing machine, which is considered to have formed the basis of modern computing.

 

"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," British Prime Minister David Cameron said. "His action saved countless lives. He also left a remarkable national legacy through his substantial scientific achievements, often being referred to as the 'father of modern computing.' "

 

The pardon, under the Royal Prerogative of Mercy, comes into effect Tuesday, the British Ministry of Justice said.

 

[oceansunshine]

Two additional articles on AlanT from NPR/Radiolab:

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/dec/24/enigma-codebreaker-alan-turing-royal-pardon

 

and

 

http://www.radiolab.org/story/193037-turing-problem/

 

A nice well deserved Christmas present, even if a couple of generations too late.... :o

[leigh.bess.toad]

Ned Weeks' big speech near the end of The Normal Heart:

 

I belong to a culture that includes Proust, Henry James, Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Christopher Marlowe, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Tennessee Williams, Byron, EM Forster, Auden, Frances Bacon, James Baldwin, Harry Stacks Sullivan, John Maynard Keynes, Dag Hammarskjöld. These are not invisible men. Did you know that it was an openly gay Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning the second world war. His name was Alan Turing. And he cracked the German’s Enigma code, so the allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do. And when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay. Why don’t they teach any of this in the schools? If they did maybe he wouldn’t have had to kill himself. The only way we’ll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn’t just sexual. It’s all there, all through history. We’ve been there but we have to claim it. We have to identify who was in it. And articulate what is in our minds and hearts, and all our creative contributions to this earth. And until we do that, until we organize ourselves block, by neighborhood, by city, by state, into a united visible community that fights back, we’re doomed. That’s how I want to be defined. As one of the men who fought the war.

[AdamSmith]

A start, but only. The Guardian notes the 75,000 others prosecuted under these laws whom the government has not deemed worthy of pardon because, so sorry, there was no wartime heroism or genius to redeem their faggotry.

 

What would truly serve social justice, some suggest, would be a blanket pardon for all so convicted.

[oceansunshine]

Ned Weeks' big speech near the end of The Normal Heart:

 

I belong to a culture that includes Proust, Henry James, Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Christopher Marlowe, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Tennessee Williams, Byron, EM Forster, Auden, Frances Bacon, James Baldwin, Harry Stacks Sullivan, John Maynard Keynes, Dag Hammarskjöld. These are not invisible men. Did you know that it was an openly gay Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning the second world war. His name was Alan Turing. And he cracked the German’s Enigma code, so the allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do. And when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay. Why don’t they teach any of this in the schools? If they did maybe he wouldn’t have had to kill himself. The only way we’ll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn’t just sexual. It’s all there, all through history. We’ve been there but we have to claim it. We have to identify who was in it. And articulate what is in our minds and hearts, and all our creative contributions to this earth. And until we do that, until we organize ourselves block, by neighborhood, by city, by state, into a united visible community that fights back, we’re doomed. That’s how I want to be defined. As one of the men who fought the war.

 

+1

 

Lee,

Thank you for your posting. I've learned a lot these past two years about accepting myself and not trying to change, but rather accept myself as a normal guy who happens to be a normal gay guy.

 

While knowing just a bit about Larry Kramer and his film and play Normal Heart, I still have an awful lot to learn about those who have stood up for the many like me who stayed in the closet way too long. And I certainly owe a lot to these rights fighters for working to protect my rights while i was afraid and finding myself hiding from even accepting myself as a gay man. So to those that have stood up in these past years, some going back 1000's to today, a big thank you that can never be fully paid by any one individual.

 

And of course I need to watch the film Normal Heart this next week.

 

Lee, again thanks for posting.

 

Daddy, Thank you for hosting and managing this site. Its helped me and I'm sure many others in accepting.....

 

And of course to Alan Turning (at least in memory), thank you for your work in mathematics that in the end did a huge service to end a war. And for accepting yourself as a normal guy who happened to be gay, or at least thinking that way while most in the 1940's did not yet accept nor understand in our world.

 

I still have a lot to learn. And I'm thankful for much, including some close and not so close friends, plus my good health.

 

And to all on this board, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas Day no matter what religions or upbringings. May we all have a positive outlook and good health or at least better health in 2014, along with strong relationships that are ongoing or built in 2014. :-)

 

 

 

 

 

Doug

[bcohen7719]

Ned Weeks' big speech near the end of The Normal Heart:

 

I belong to a culture that includes Proust, Henry James, Tchaikovsky, Cole Porter, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Alexander the Great, Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Christopher Marlowe, Walt Whitman, Herman Melville, Tennessee Williams, Byron, EM Forster, Auden, Frances Bacon, James Baldwin, Harry Stacks Sullivan, John Maynard Keynes, Dag Hammarskjöld. These are not invisible men. Did you know that it was an openly gay Englishman who was as responsible as any man for winning the second world war. His name was Alan Turing. And he cracked the German’s Enigma code, so the allies knew in advance what the Nazis were going to do. And when the war was over he committed suicide he was so hounded for being gay. Why don’t they teach any of this in the schools? If they did maybe he wouldn’t have had to kill himself. The only way we’ll have real pride is when we demand recognition of a culture that isn’t just sexual. It’s all there, all through history. We’ve been there but we have to claim it. We have to identify who was in it. And articulate what is in our minds and hearts, and all our creative contributions to this earth. And until we do that, until we organize ourselves block, by neighborhood, by city, by state, into a united visible community that fights back, we’re doomed. That’s how I want to be defined. As one of the men who fought the war.

 

Lee,

 

Wonderful that you'd remember that, and recount it here!

Many, many thanks!

 

BC