Well said and long overdue. An excerpt:
"Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. 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.I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years this government has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community.
This recognition of Alan’s status as one of Britain’s most famous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long overdue.But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind’s darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that in living memory, people could become so consumed by hate - by anti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices - that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the European landscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total war are part of Europe’s history and not Europe’s present.
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.
Gordon Brown"
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3 comments:
Spara, if you can't think of anything to blog about, then don't blog. Quoting GB without a word of your own is just wasting bandwidth - where was this cultural awareness when Kevin Rudd apologizes to an ENTIRE PEOPLE for 200 years of exploitation his predecessor refused to acknowledge even happened?
No, a gay Jew who will live forever in the history of computing getting a hard time from his peers is far more important to this blog it appears. What about all the other gay Jews who DIDN'T design computers? Do they get an apology too?
Sickening. Maybe if England was enlightened like Australia and had the Mardis Gras every year, it'd be a lot more tolerant - Brown's despised by his citizens for being "a jock" for crying out loud.
You're all a bunch of backwards intolerant xenophobes. No wonder Adam Rickett fled the country for somewhere civilized.
"- where was this cultural awareness when Kevin Rudd apologizes to an ENTIRE PEOPLE for 200 years of exploitation his predecessor refused to acknowledge even happened?"
I admit to not being very well informed regarding Australian politics.
"No, a gay Jew who will live forever in the history of computing getting a hard time from his peers is far more important to this blog it appears. What about all the other gay Jews who DIDN'T design computers? Do they get an apology too?"
If you read Gordon Brown's statement you can see that he acknowledges others as well as Alan Turing.
"Sickening. Maybe if England was enlightened like Australia and had the Mardis Gras every year, it'd be a lot more tolerant - Brown's despised by his citizens for being "a jock" for crying out loud."
England does have Gay Pride events every year. Australia borrowed the idea from us.
"You're all a bunch of backwards intolerant xenophobes. "
A rather harsh judgement.
I admit to not being very well informed regarding Australian politics.
You've never heard of the Stolen Generation then?
If you read Gordon Brown's statement you can see that he acknowledges others as well as Alan Turing.
Then why is this post called "regarding the treatment of Alan Turing" only?
England does have Gay Pride events every year. Australia borrowed the idea from us.
Hah! You wouldn't say that if you'd actually BEEN to a Mardi Gras - it's more famous than any march England managed.
A rather harsh judgement.
But not one you can argue with, I notice.
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