Attitude, Stephen Fry, Benedict Cumberbatch and more unite for pardon demand
By Nick Bond
Attitude Magazine has united with a host of leading figures including Stephen Fry, Peter Tatchell, actor Benedict Cumberbatch to call on the British government to pardon the convictions of thousands of gay men convicted of “gross indecency.”
In an open letter that will be published in tomorrow’s edition of The Guardian newspaper, Attitude editor Matthew Todd, Fry, Tatchell, Cumberbatch, Imitation Game director Morten Tyldum and Alan Turing’s niece, Rachel Barnes, call on the government to take action.
Citing the case of Alan Turing, the brilliant World War II code breaker who was charged with “gross indecency” for committing homosexual acts, chemically castrated and later committed suicide, the co-signees state that Turing’s story is sadly not unique.
While welcoming Turing’s subsequent posthumous apology from the government, the letter states that the government continues to ignore “over 49,000 men who were convicted under the same law, many of whom took their own lives. An estimated 15,000 men are believed to still be alive.”
The co-signees call on the government to “begin a discussion about the possibility of pardoning all the men, alive or deceased, who like Alan Turing, were convicted under the UK’s ‘gross indecency’ law and other discriminatory anti-gay legislation.
A petition, Pardon 49k, has been set up for members of the public to show their support for the cause.
