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By: Catherine A. Ross

Gordon Brown apologises for the treatment of gay genius Turing

 

Gordon Brown has responded to the campaign for a posthumous apology for the treatment of Second World War code-breaking genius Alan Turing by saying it was "utterly unfair" and how "deeply sorry" he was. The campaign's petition on the No 10 website had been signed by 30,805 people.
 
Alan Turing's work at BletchleyPark in the Second World War was, according to one of the leaders of the campaign for an apology, Professor Richard Dawkins, a greater contribution to defeating the Nazis than Eisenhower or Churchill's. After his prosecution for homosexuality and submission to a form of chemical castration as an alternative to a jail sentence, he committed suicide in 1954.
 
Gordon Brown, writing in the Telegraph today, said: "While Mr 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.
  
"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." 
 
Although he welcomed the prime minister's gesture, Peter Tatchell said an official apology for the estimated 100,000 British men who suffered similar treatment was also due. "Singling out Turing just because he is famous is wrong," he said.
 
"Unlike Turing, many thousands of ordinary gay men and women were never given the option of hormone treatment. They were sent to prison. All these men were criminalised for behaviour that was not a crime between heterosexual men and women."