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Government response to petition 'turing'
From: David Farber <dave () farber net>
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:22:14 -0400
Begin forwarded message: From: Brian Randell <Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk> Date: September 11, 2009 6:13:39 AM EDT To: dave () farber net Subject: Fwd: Government response to petition 'turing' Hi Dave: I thought you might like this message from 10 Downing Street for IP. cheers Brian
From: "10 Downing Street" <number10 () petitions pm gov uk> To: "e-petition signatories" <number10 () petitions pm gov uk> Subject: Government response to petition 'turing' Date: Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:35:57 +0100X-smtpf-Report: sid=l8AAe7171014300100; client=mx,ipv6; mail=; rcpt=; nrcpt=1:0; fails=1Thank you for signing this petition. The Prime Minister has written a response. Please read below. Prime Minister: 2009 has been a year of deep reflection - a chance forBritain, as a nation, to commemorate the profound debts we owe to those who came before. A unique combination of anniversaries and events have stirredin us that sense of pride and gratitude which characterise the Britishexperience. Earlier this year I stood with Presidents Sarkozy and Obama to honour the service and the sacrifice of the heroes who stormed the beaches of Normandy 65 years ago. And just last week, we marked the 70 years which have passed since the British government declared its willingness to take up arms against Fascism and declared the outbreak of World War Two. So I am both pleased and proud that, thanks to a coalition of computer scientists,historians and LGBT activists, we have this year a chance to mark andcelebrate another contribution to Britain's fight against the darkness ofdictatorship; that of code-breaker Alan Turing.Turing was a quite brilliant mathematician, most famous for his work onbreaking the German Enigma codes. It is no exaggeration to say that,without his outstanding contribution, the history of World War Two could well have been very different. He truly was one of those individuals we can point to whose unique contribution helped to turn the tide of war. The debt of gratitude he is owed makes it all the more horrifying, therefore, thathe was treated so inhumanely. In 1952, he was convicted of 'gross indecency' - in effect, tried for being gay. His sentence - and he was faced with the miserable choice of this or prison - was chemicalcastration by a series of injections of female hormones. He took his ownlife just two years later.Thousands of people have come together to demand justice for Alan Turing and recognition of the appalling way he was treated. While Turing was dealtwith under the law of the time and we can't put the clock back, histreatment was of course utterly unfair and I am pleased to have the chance to say how deeply sorry I and we all are for what happened to him. Alan and the many thousands of other gay men who were convicted as he was convicted under homophobic laws were treated terribly. Over the years millions morelived in fear of conviction. I am proud that those days are gone and that in the last 12 years thisgovernment has done so much to make life fairer and more equal for our LGBT community. This recognition of Alan’Äôs status as one of Britain's mostfamous victims of homophobia is another step towards equality and long overdue.But even more than that, Alan deserves recognition for his contribution to humankind. For those of us born after 1945, into a Europe which is united, democratic and at peace, it is hard to imagine that our continent was once the theatre of mankind's darkest hour. It is difficult to believe that inliving memory, people could become so consumed by hate - byanti-Semitism, by homophobia, by xenophobia and other murderous prejudices- that the gas chambers and crematoria became a piece of the Europeanlandscape as surely as the galleries and universities and concert halls which had marked out the European civilisation for hundreds of years. It is thanks to men and women who were totally committed to fighting fascism, people like Alan Turing, that the horrors of the Holocaust and of total warare part of Europe's history and not Europe's present. So on behalf of the British government, and all those who live freelythanks to Alan's work I am very proud to say: we're sorry, you deservedso much better. Gordon Brown If you would like to help preserve Alan Turing's memory for future generations, please donate here: http://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/ Petition information - http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/turing/If you would like to opt out of receiving further mail on this or any otherpetitions you signed, please email optout () petitions pm gov uk
-- School of Computing Science, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 7RU, UK EMAIL = Brian.Randell () ncl ac uk PHONE = +44 191 222 7923 FAX = +44 191 222 8232 URL = http://www.cs.ncl.ac.uk/people/brian.randell ------------------------------------------- Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/247/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/247/ Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
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- Government response to petition 'turing' David Farber (Sep 11)