Righting wrongs

In a perfect world, Alan Turing would have been knighted, he would have been elevated to the peerage and he would have been treated as the hero he was. But he didn’t live in a perfect world, and the imperfect one he inhabited ultimately consumed him.

Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician and is often called “the father of computing” for his work in what we now call “information technology”. But his hero status was the result of his work in breaking the Nazi’s Enigma code, a feat that undeniably shortened World War 2 and helped to liberate Europe from fascism. Had this work not succeeded, the war would have turned out very differently, and it’s entirely possible that the British would have had to learn German.

Alan Turing was also gay, something that was a crime in Britain at that time. In 1952, he had a sexual relationship with a man who later broke into Turing’s home. When Turing reported the burglary to police, he was forced to admit the sexual relationship and he was charged, tried and convicted of “gross indecency”, the same charge used against Oscar Wilde a half century earlier.

Turing was given two choices: Accept chemical castration, or go to prison, as Wilde had done. Two years later, Turing killed himself.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has now issued an apology—too little, too late, but the right thing to do. He wrote:

“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.”

This is an important acknowledgement that what Britain did to thousands of gay men is indefensible. The country in so may other ways tried to advance civilisation, yet this remains a recent stain on its national character. “So on behalf of the British government," Brown's statement continued, "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.”

Official apologies like this are good and appropriate, but alone they don’t change anything—the past is still the past, after all. There’s still much work to do.

Many countries are fiercely anti-gay: Iran executes gay men (and then lies about doing so), anti-gay death squads roam Iraq, officials in countries like Poland and Russia make all sorts of viciously anti-gay pronouncements—and they all get away with it.

The US, of course, has a long way to go: Organised religious bigotry uses the political system to oppress GLBT people, and monstrous laws like “Defense” of Marriage Act, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and bans on same-sex couples’ immigration remain on the books. The religiously-motivated drive to take away rights from GLBT people continues apace.

New Zealand was once a typically anti-gay Western democracy, but in less than a generation became one of the most rational and progressive nations. Even here, there are things to be fixed, like the anti-gay anomaly in adoption law. Britain, too, has made tremendous advances over the past decade or so.

So it’s great to see Britain finally apologise for the wrongs it did to Alan Turing and countless other gay men, but to finally right that great wrong, it must do more. Actions speak louder than words.