Hurrah!

Finally the government has apologised for the treatment of Alan Turing back in the 1950s.

More comment later, just happy there was some good news on the bulletins this morning!

ETA: I'm actually for once impressed by something that Gordon Brown has done! There's been the usual complainers saying that the apology is meaningless because it's nothing really to do with the Prime Minister and that it was a different age and Turing was tried by the laws of the time. To me that's not the point; this apology *is* symbolic, but it's a hugely positive gesture. It says that we realise now that what Turing was subjected to was wrong and that we accept that. By accepting that we move forwards, making things a little bit better for the future. We as a society say through our PM that being homosexual is not a crime and no one should be persecuted for who they are.

The actual details of the treatment of Turing are horrible. After being prosecuted for 'gross indecency' he avoided a gaol term by undergoing experimental chemical castration. But that wasn't enough punishment, by removing his security privileges at the same time he had his livelihood taken from him. The message at the time; being gay is a crime and makes you less than human. I can sympathise why Turing took his own life two years later.

To end on a positive note, as a society we have done horrible things to various people in the past and continue to in the present, but we're moving in the right direction and one day we'll have a world which we can all be proud of.