Stephen Fry launches campaign to overturn historic gay sex convictions

Stephen Fry is fronting a campaign alongside Hollywood media mogul Harvey Weinstein to overturn historical gay sex convictions in the UK, supported by Attitude.

The pair will seek 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.

The campaigns follows the release of The Imitation Game, the Oscar-nominated Alan Turing biopic which 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.

The WWII code-breaker was pardoned by the Labour government in 2009, leading to calls for all men convicted under the law to receive the same gesture.

Speaking at a screening of the film in London this week, Fry said: “There is a feeling that if Alan Turing was pardoned then perhaps so should all of those men whose names were ruined in their lifetime.

“It was a nasty, malicious and horrific law that allowed so much blackmail, misery and distress.

“Turing stands as a figure symbolic to his own age in the same way as Oscar Wilde, who suffered under a similar law.”

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: