The Inventor of a Homo's Devil Machine to get full pardon?

[Joe Molotov]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/europe/09/01/alan.turing.petition/index.html

ONDON, England (CNN) -- An online petition demanding a formal apology from the British government for its treatment of World War II code-breaker Alan Turing is gaining momentum.

Turing was subjected to chemical castration in 1952 after being found guilty of the charge of gross indecency for having a homosexual relationship, an illegal act at the time. He committed suicide two years later.

More than 19,000 people have added their names to the petition on the UK Government Web site since it opened three weeks ago, urging the government to "recognize the tragic consequences of prejudice that ended this man's life and career."

The petition was created by computer scientist John Graham-Cumming, who said he grew "mad" at the country's memory of a man he says should be considered one of its national heroes.

"I'm looking for an apology from the British government because that's where I think the wrong was done. But Turing is clearly someone of international stature," Graham-Cumming said.

Turing was best known for inventing the Bombe, a code-breaking machine that deciphered messages encoded by German Enigma machines during World War II.

The messages provided the Allies with crucial information from the British government's code-breaking headquarters in Bletchley Park where Turing worked full-time during the war.

He was considered a mathematical genius and went on to develop the Turing machine, a theory that automatic computation cannot solve all mathematical problems, which is considered the basis of modern computing.

However, to avoid a custodial sentence for gross indecency Turing agreed to undergo chemical castration. He was injected with estrogen, an experience that is widely believed to have led to his suicide just two years later. Turing was just 41 when he ended his life by eating an apple laced with cyanide.

Graham-Cumming has not yet received a response from the British government to his request for an apology, nor has he received a reply from Queen Elizabeth II to whom he wrote last week asking that Turing be considered for a posthumous knighthood.

"There is no doubt in my mind," he wrote, "that if Turing had lived past age 41 his international impact would have been great and that he likely would have received a knighthood while alive."

Graham-Cumming's efforts to draw attention to Turing's life has attracted an international response.

"This morning I woke up to an inbox stuffed full of e-mails and blog postings from around the world on Turing, and many people were saying 'it's a pity I can't sign the British petition,'" he said. The main online petition is only open to British citizens.

Supporters have set up a second international petition which has attracted more than 5,000 signatures.

Graham-Cumming is not fazed. "My focus is really on Britain at the moment because I think that is where the greatest need is, but I'm very happy for anyone in the world to know about Alan Turing."

High-profile signatories to the petition include author Ian McEwan, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, and gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell.

Graham-Cumming said if the government would not extend an apology, "the least it could do is to put Bletchley Park on a sound financial footing in Turing's name."

Earlier this year, the center's supporters created their own online petition urging the government to "save Bletchley Park."

The site receives no external funding and has been turned down for funds by the UK National Lottery, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The government replied to the petition last week saying that, while it "agrees that the buildings on the Bletchley Park site are of significant historic importance and, although recognizing the excellent work being carried out there, at present it has no plans, nor the resources, to extend its sponsorship of museums and galleries beyond the present number."

Simon Greenish, director of the Bletchley Park Trust, said: "The work that Turing did during the war has never really been properly recognized and this is an opportunity [for the government] to do that."

He said the government had also failed to recognize the contribution of Bletchley Park to the war effort: "What went on in those buildings was absolutely vital to the outcome of World War II."

The center receives more than 100,000 visitors a year and is staffed mainly by volunteers.

A portrait of Turing is currently on display at the National Portrait Gallery in London, as part of its "Gay Icons" exhibition. He was one of the six personal icons selected by contributor Chris Smith, Britain's first openly gay Member of Parliament.

I just read Crytonomicon during the summer, and Alan Turing's cool in my book, even if he was as queer as a two-dollar bill. But seriously though, that chemical castration thing does not sound cool. He deserved better than that. Fucking limey brits. 

[Fresh Prince]

Sadly this will take like a few years to get up.

[Joe Molotov]

I would sign if it would let me (I guess I still could cheat and do it). You don't have to be a civil rights leader to realize that what happened to him was (or at least should be) an embarrassment.

[The Fake Shemp]

Sadly this will take like a few years to get up.

That's what she said.

[Joe Molotov]

[Fresh Prince]

I was expecting a castration joke but yes Willco you got me good.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Ha ha ha

[close]

[Flannel Boy]

You must be a British citizen or resident to sign the petition.

[Herr Mafflard]

Signed. Let's hope he gets that posthumous knighthood.

In fact, I can't believe he hasn't got one yet, considering how much they like dishing out honors willy-nilly.

[Flannel Boy]

There is an international petition which I signed, the link is on Cnn.com

should have read the entire article.

I just signed the international petition, but this is something that should come from the British people.

[recursivelyenumerable]

I don't see why everyone is getting so worked up about this guy.  He never even won a Nobel Prize (or whatever the equivalent in computer science is called).

[Madrun Badrun]

I don't see why everyone is getting so worked up about this guy.  He never even won a Nobel Prize (or whatever the equivalent in computer science is called).

 

bravo

[Tauntaun]

Sadly this will take like a few years to get up.

That's what she said.

 

[Joe Molotov]

I don't see why everyone is getting so worked up about this guy.  He never even won a Nobel Prize (or whatever the equivalent in computer science is called).

Well done, you've won this thread. 

[Herr Mafflard]

Update: got an email saying the Prime Minister replied to the petition. We got the apology. 

Thank you for signing this petition. The Prime Minister has written a
response. Please read below.

Prime Minister: 2009 has been a year of deep reflection – a chance for
Britain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who
came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirred
in us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the British
experience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to
honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches
of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which
have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take
up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am
both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition of computer scientists,
historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark and
celebrate another contribution to Britain’s fight against the darkness of
dictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.

Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work on
breaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that,
without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could
well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can
point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt
of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, that
he was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of ‘gross
indecency’ – in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence – and he
was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemical
castration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his own
life just two years later.

Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing
and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealt
with under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, his
treatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance
to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and
the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted
under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions more
lived in fear of conviction.

I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this
government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT
community. This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most
famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long
overdue.

But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to
humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united,
democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once
the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in
living memory, people could become so consumed by hate – by
anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices
– that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European
landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls
which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is
thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism,
people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war
are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.

So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freely
thanks to Alan’s work I am very proud to say: we’re sorry, you deserved
so much better.

Gordon Brown

If you would like to help preserve Alan Turing's memory for future
generations, please donate here: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

Petition information - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/

If you would like to opt out of receiving further mail on this or any other
petitions you signed, please email optout@petitions.pm.gov.uk

[Phoenix Dark]

I don't see why everyone is getting so worked up about this guy.  He never even won a Nobel Prize (or whatever the equivalent in computer science is called).

And like you he was utterly invisible on female radars