Britain’s decision to posthumously pardon the tens of thousands of gay men convicted of seeking or having sex is just and long overdue. But it is unjust that 15,000 men who were convicted before those laws were repealed and who are still alive will have to go through an onerous process of applying for a pardon.
The new law is named after Alan Turing, the celebrated breaker of Germany’s secret codes in World War II who was convicted of homosexual acts, accepted chemical castration in lieu of prison and died two years later, in 1954, of an apparent suicide. The government apologized in 2009, and Queen Elizabeth II pardoned him in 2013.
Some gay rights campaigners, like George Montague, the 93-year-old author of “The Oldest Gay in the Village” who was convicted in 1974 of gross indecency, object to the idea of a pardon, saying it implies that a crime was committed. He told the BBC he would prefer an apology.
The government should apologize to him and all the other men (lesbianism was not criminalized) who were made to bear the stigma of the unjust laws. These laws remained in effect until 1967, and arrests continued in gay hookup spots after that.
That said, the British action to clear the records of so many men who suffered from the historically misguided presumptions and prejudices of society and religion is an important step. And measures like the Turing law, which applies only to England and Wales, should be pursued in Scotland and Northern Ireland as well. Scotland did not repeal its laws against gay sex until 1980, and Northern Ireland waited until 1982.
In other parts of the world, homosexuality is still illegal. In Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Sudan and Yemen, as well as in parts of Nigeria and Somalia, it carries the death penalty, and 70 other countries still punish people for same-sex relations. Even where homosexuality is legal, gays can still be subject to degrading laws, like Russia’s ban on promoting “nontraditional” sexual relations. The Turing law is an important affirmation that false and cruel social norms can be rejected.
The Turing law is also a reminder that in liberal Western societies, too, the struggle for gay rights continues. It was only in 2003 that the United States Supreme Court struck a fatal blow to sodomy laws, in the landmark Lawrence v. Texas decision, and only last year that the court struck down state bans on same-sex marriage. Many more barriers still need to be cleared.
For British men who were stigmatized, imprisoned and beaten for their sexual orientation, clearing their records posthumously is a critical recognition of historical wrongs. If the government now does the same — automatically — for those who are alive, it will send an even stronger message to the countries where such abhorrent laws still exist.