British codebreaker, castrated for being a homosexual, receives pardon

[rightwinger]

Queen pardons Alan Turing, code-breaker castrated for homosexuality - CNN.com

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which was illegal at the time -- is "a sentence we would now consider unjust and discriminatory and which has now been repealed," Grayling said.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.

 

[Pickle]

That's crazy and sad.

 

[Sallow]

He was more than just a code breaker..which by the way..saved thousands, perhaps, millions of lives.

He was the father of the modern computer.

 

[PredFan]

How do you get pardoned from castration?

 

[whitehall]

How much time was he facing? Something unbalanced about a person with a doctorate degree choosing castration rather than risk incarceration.

 

[rightwinger]

How much time was he facing? Something unbalanced about a person with a doctorate degree choosing castration rather than risk incarceration.

He shouldn't have faced any time at all

 

[RetiredGySgt]

How much time was he facing? Something unbalanced about a person with a doctorate degree choosing castration rather than risk incarceration.

He shouldn't have faced any time at all

Ya cause our mores apply to the 50's. It is simple one can not impose current opinions or political mores or laws on the past. It doesn't work.

We are so much better off allowing gays to marry after all.

 

[Howey]

We are so much better off allowing gays to marry after all.

Yes. We are.

 

[whitehall]

How much time was he facing? Something unbalanced about a person with a doctorate degree choosing castration rather than risk incarceration.

He shouldn't have faced any time at all

The point is that the strange system in the country formerly known as England offered him what, a couple of months in prison (maybe probation), and yet he chose to be castrated. Later he ate an apple laced with poison. How stable was this guy?

 

[ScienceRocks]

God bless him...Got to respect a man that does so much good for humanity.

 

[Noomi]

Poor bastard. I don't know how they could justify torturing the poor bloke like that.

 

[mack20]

How much time was he facing? Something unbalanced about a person with a doctorate degree choosing castration rather than risk incarceration.

It was a chemical castration (he was injected with a synthetic estrogen hormone for a year as part of the terms of his probation) that was meant to reduce libido but left him impotent and caused him to develop breasts. It's possible that he underestimated what the treatment would do to him, or perhaps he underestimated his own eventual emotional reaction to the results of the treatment.

The fact remains though that the world lost a brilliant man when Alan Turing died. As Sallow said, he was far more than just a codebreaker.

 

[Swagger]

How much time was he facing? Something unbalanced about a person with a doctorate degree choosing castration rather than risk incarceration.

I think the usual sentence passed against someone convicted of homosexuality was eighteen months to two years imprisonment. However, such was the cultural objection to homosexuality, it's possible that he feared for his life behind bars, so chose castration instead of risking strangulation in prison, possibly by or with the collusion of prison warders.

 

[rightwinger]

Alan Turing was more than a codebreaker. He was one of the greatest computer pioneers at the time. Think what he could have accomplished in the 1950s and 60s at the dawn of the computer age

 

[Beria]

He was a brilliant man its a pity he was GAY , 1950s Britain was a very different country than todays Britain !

 

[MaryL]

I think we would have survived as a civilization if this kid (A. Turing) was dumb and straight, there is a tide to history. Homosexuality didn't win WWII after all, a bunch of straight kids with guns did. Too bad about Turing, I feel bad for him.

 

[hangover]

British codebreaker, castrated for being a homosexual, receives pardon

Just like the Catholic church burning people at the stake for saying the world wasn't flat, and then a thousand years later saying, "Oh uh, sorry."

 

[rightwinger]

I think we would have survived as a civilization if this kid (A. Turing) was dumb and straight, there is a tide to history. Homosexuality didn't win WWII after all, a bunch of straight kids with guns did. Too bad about Turing, I feel bad for him.

Breaking those codes saved a hell of a lot of lives and helped turn the war

This homosexual helped win WWII

 

[Unkotare]

How much time was he facing? Something unbalanced about a person with a doctorate degree choosing castration rather than risk incarceration.

His lawyer might have been riding him to just submit and take what they were putting out there for him without causing too much friction.

Well, at least he avoided doing hard time. I suppose eventually he could have stood for parole, but once you're inserted into the penal system you're just fucked, cum what may.


...

 

[Unkotare]

Just like the Catholic church burning people at the stake for saying the world wasn't flat,

Um...no.