
Britain posthumously pardons thousands of gay men in 'Turing law' - happy-go-lucky
http://edition.cnn.com/2017/01/31/europe/britain-gay-pardon-turing-law/
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theluketaylor
When this was first being discussed and debated in British Parliament I
thought it was an excellent idea to help heal wounds created in the past.
During that process I saw comments from some gay men saying they didn't want a
pardon; they didn't do anything wrong. I'm not sure I've ever been so changed
on any issue with a single statement before.

Pardon implies forgivness for wrongdoing, but these men don't need or want
that, they didn't do anything wrong. The establishment that passed laws
limiting love are the ones in need of forgiveness. There needs to be a legal
mechanism to automatically expunge criminal records for social issues once
society has managed to catch up with the people it deemed rule breakers in the
past other than a pardon. A pardon is just the wrong mechanism to deliver an
apology.

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theoh
Another possible aspect of this, which complicates in some ways what you said
in your comment, is that the earlier special pardon for Turing was, to my mind
at least, a patronizing idea that cast him as an unworldly "innocent". Gordon
Brown, the British PM at the time, made a statement in which he repeatedly
referred to Turing as "Alan". It was obviously insincere and came across as
inappropriate and condescending.

There's work to be done here, all right.

