Cumberbatch joins campaign to overturn historic gay sex convictions

Benedict Cumberbatch has joined Stephen Fry’s campaign, supported by Attitude, to overturn historic gay sex convictions in the UK.

The Imitation Game star has joined the likes of Fry and Hollywood media mogul Harvey Weinstein in calling for official pardons for the estimated 50,000 men who are believed to have been persecuted, imprisoned or chemically castrated under section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, which was eventually overturned in 1967.

In a letter to the Hollywood reporter, the Sherlock star said: “Alan Turing was not only prosecuted, but quite arguably persuaded to end his own life early, by a society who called him a criminal for simply seeking out the love he deserved, as all human beings do.

“Sixty years later, that same government claimed to ‘forgive’ him by pardoning him. I find this deplorable, because Turing’s actions did not warrant forgiveness – theirs did – and the 49,000 other prosecuted men deserve the same.”

The campaigns follows the release of The Imitation Game, the Oscar-nominated Alan Turing biopic which starred Cumberbatch as the WWII codebreaker and was produced by Weinstein. Turing was convicted of homosexual acts in 1952, before committing suicide two years later after undergoing a series of hormone treatments as part of his punishment.

Turing was pardoned by the Labour government in 2009, leading to calls for all men convicted under the law to receive the same gesture.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has also added his voice to campaign, while Fry is also calling for Turing’s image to be added to the back of the £10 note.

In This Article: