Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Man Who Made the UK Say “I’m Sorry for What We Did to Turing.”

medium.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 65 posts

Re: The Man Who Made the UK Say “I’m Sorry for What We Did to Turing.”

#41

Post by Energy1 »

barking wrote: post #39
DanBC wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

[flagged]

We can tailor the point being made to your nit-picking: for starters, how about men who were persecuted for having sex in the privacy of their own house, excluding those who were convicted for deeds that are still considered immoral?

Re: The Man Who Made the UK Say “I’m Sorry for What We Did to Turing.”

#43

Post by barking »

Energy1 wrote: post #41
barking wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

We can tailor the point being made to your nit-picking: for starters, how about men who were persecuted for having sex in the privacy of their own house, excluding those who were convicted for deeds that are still considered immoral?

Can you name anyone who fits this category?

Re: The Man Who Made the UK Say “I’m Sorry for What We Did to Turing.”

#45

Post by vertex-four »

barking wrote: post #43
Energy1 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We can tailor the point being made to your nit-picking: for starters, how about men who were persecuted for having sex in the privacy of their own house, excluding those who were convicted for deeds that are still considered immoral?

Can you name anyone who fits this category?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Wildeblood

Have one who was prosecuted simply for gay sex. According to the organisation Stonewall, there's thousands more - although obviously, there's not going to be a pre-made list somewhere, you'd have to go over court records.

Re: The Man Who Made the UK Say “I’m Sorry for What We Did to Turing.”

#48

Post by Sorgam »

This is absolutely not an apology. Anyone can apologize when their culture tells them some action was wrong. Whether it's persecuting homosexuals, jews, blacks, or whatever. But the fact is British law still persecutes minorities, for example incest is still illegal and people are in prison today for committing that offense. Of course most people agree that it's "wrong" or "immoral" or "sick" - just like they did with homosexuality 50 years ago. So until those other similar persecutions are stopped, this isn't an apology.

Re: The Man Who Made the UK Say “I’m Sorry for What We Did to Turing.”

#49

Post by Sorgam »

jgrahamc wrote: post #11
jacorreia wrote: post #9

I'm sure may of you are aware of Alan Turing and Oscar Wilde's prosecution for gross indecency (and if you're not you most definitely should!), but you should all also learn about the similar prosecution against Roger Casement. He was the father of human-rights investigations and made a huge impact with his investigations of human-rights abuses in Peru and the Congo. Mario Vargas Llosa (Nobel prize-winner for Literat…

They are rather different cases. Casement was tried and convicted of treason for trying, during World War I, to get Germany to support an uprising in Ireland against Great Britain. It's true that his alleged homosexuality didn't help his case.

Considering Ireland (except Northern Ireland) is now widely accepted to be independent of Britain, doesn't that mean any "treason" supporting that should also seen as acceptable, and Casement should be pardoned from his treason conviction? To maintain it, implies that Ireland really shouldn't be independent, and that anyone still supporting it is also guilty.

Re: The Man Who Made the UK Say “I’m Sorry for What We Did to Turing.”

#50

Post by philwelch »

rmc wrote: post #18

(Disclaimer: I'm an openly gay man working in technology). A part of me dislikes how Alan Turing was given a pardon and apology. It's like they said it was wrong to persecute a gay man for being gay, but only if you help invent the computer and help defeat the Nazis. What about all the other gay men persecuted under the same law? Why do they not get a pardon/apology? Do we have to help stop evil genocidal dictators b…

I think it's worth looking at the other way; obviously this kind of treatment is wrong when you apply it to anyone, but it is even worse when you apply it to one of the 5-10 most important and accomplished people your nation ever has and probably ever will produce.
Post reply on HN