According to the Times, British P.M. Gordon Brown has issued an official apology for the inhumane treatment it visited upon mathematician/philosopher and WWII codebreaker Alan Turing. Turing, who was gay, was convicted of “gross indecency” and forced to take female hormones. He committed suicide at age 41.
Read the full article here: Britain Apologizes to Gay Codebreaker Alan Turing – NYTimes.com
It makes you wonder ‘why now?’ when after so many years and different periods of civil rights activism that something as simple as an apology can be made, as opposed to any other time. At this point, now 55 years after his suicide, it makes you wonder how powerful and meaningful the apology is, and whether it accomplishes what those signatories of the petition that supposedly sparked the apology itself set out to do in the first place. We can clear his name for history, but in the grander scheme of things, what is actually accomplished?
It’s a good question.
(Galileo might say “really? apologized to already?”)
regardless of other things an apology might do, it DOES create the opportunity for a renewed public discussion, both about this remarkable man and about the human justice issues that his case embodies.