Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

WWII codebreaker Alan Turing gets royal pardon for gay conviction
CBS News ^ | 12/24/2013 | Reuters

Posted on 12/24/2013 9:14:14 AM PST by thetallguy24

click here to read article


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-103 next last
To: SECURE AMERICA

Just curious. Was sodomy between married adults banned in the good old days too?


81 posted on 12/24/2013 4:57:23 PM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 58 | View Replies]

To: Nifster
Good post.

All sins are not equal.

1 John 5:16-17 tells us that there are sins which are unto death and sins which are not unto death.

Also, sodomy is one of only four sins that the Scripture says are sins that cry out to God for vengeance: wilful murder, defrauding laborers of the wages they earned, oppression of the poor, and sodomy.

82 posted on 12/25/2013 6:29:25 AM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 76 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner
It was not forced. The government wanted him to do time, but gave him the option of hormone treatment.

I think that was very generous considering what happened.

The teenage prostitute he hired took things from his house and he called the police to help him track the prostitute down, and he lied to the police about the circumstances.

During the investigation, the police found classified documents in his home in plain sight on his desk.

This was at a time when the UK was discovering a network of Soviet spies and double agents riddled through their government.

If one of those Soviets had the presence of mind to offer one of Turing's streetwalkers £50 for anything he found during an assignation, Stalin could have gotten access to Allied encryption systems.

His disturbed appetites could have cost countless lives.

83 posted on 12/25/2013 6:37:49 AM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: wideawake

and sodomy, for the record, can be practiced by heterosexuals as well as homosexuals


84 posted on 12/25/2013 6:42:25 AM PST by Nifster
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 82 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner

Chemical castration is a misnomer. He was guven hormone injections that effected his libido. He could have chosen jail time. He decided to take a year of hormone treatment instead.


85 posted on 12/25/2013 5:12:39 PM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 80 | View Replies]

To: Jim from C-Town
The government told Turing that if he liked his man-boobs, he could keep them.

Sorry, must be that pesky limited government part of me, but I have a problem with government mandated injections, even as punishment for violating security clearance. But that's just me.

86 posted on 12/26/2013 8:34:49 AM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 85 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner
He could have gone to prison. Hell, He could have done life or even been put to death for taking state secrets and having them in an insecure location. IE His home.

He was tried, convicted and given either 1 year in jail or 1 year of hormone therapy to remove his sex drive. He chose to have the shot.s.

The straight fact is that he was a genius who helped win the war for the allied forces. He was also a sick sexual pervert who could have been open to black mail and espionage. Benedict Arnold was a war hero for the Colonies as well. Sorry nothing pesky about the protection of state secrets during serious times. The Cold War was about as serious as it gets besides open global thermo-nuclear war.

87 posted on 12/26/2013 10:29:18 AM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 86 | View Replies]

To: Jim from C-Town
The evidence I've seen shows he was charged with indency, not putting state secrets at risk. His security clearance was revoked because of the conviction, but the crime he was convicted of had nothing to do with any classified material he had access to, unless you have evidence otherwise.

Hard to see how the government benefitted from "removing his sexual drive" after his security clearance was revoked. If the government gave me the choice to chop off a finger to avoid prison for stealing, I'd probably do it. But it's still barbaric; something more in the spirit of the Saudis than Great Britain.

88 posted on 12/26/2013 4:52:04 PM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 87 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner

homosexuals are always a security risk.


89 posted on 12/26/2013 4:53:15 PM PST by longtermmemmory (VOTE! http://www.senate.gov and http://www.house.gov)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner

You should do a little research into the case.


90 posted on 12/26/2013 5:06:22 PM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 88 | View Replies]

To: Jim from C-Town

Likewise, as I asked you to produce evidence to support the assertion that he was convicted of some type of crime associated with his job and security clearance, and you couldn’t.


91 posted on 12/26/2013 5:23:42 PM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 90 | View Replies]

To: wideawake

Turing was prosecuted for violating the Labouchere Amendment, which were Victorian era indecency laws. It had nothing to do with classified material or security clearance violations. I’ve yet to see anything to back up the various defenses of having the government make someone mutilate themselves with an “offer he can’t refuse” to avoid prison.


92 posted on 12/27/2013 8:36:12 AM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 83 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner
Again, the government didn't make him do anything.

He made a decision to solicit a prostitute.

He then made another decision about how to serve his time.

He was a grown up. No one "made" him do the things he did.

And I was unaware that the age of a law invalidated its authority.

Presumably you find the Constitution supremely frustrating.

93 posted on 12/27/2013 12:31:33 PM PST by wideawake
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 92 | View Replies]

To: wideawake

Does anyone here have any evidence that Turing’s charge and conviction had anything to do with national security, his security clearance, or classified documents, or are you going to keep up these stupid semantic games, where the government offering mutilation or prison is somehow “not forcing him to do anything”?


94 posted on 12/27/2013 4:43:25 PM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner

I didn’t have to. The fact that he was involved in procuring prostitution is reason enough to lose his clearance. The fact that it was with a teenage boy makes it worse.

For a man so brilliant, he sure di have some stupid and dangerous habits. However, procuring anonymous sex with many different sex partners is ‘normal’ behavior for homosexual men.


95 posted on 12/27/2013 9:24:39 PM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 91 | View Replies]

To: Jim from C-Town

Ok, well then we can treat all of your comments about national security, security clearance, and classified documents as erroneous, since they have nothing whatsoever to do with Turing’s case.


96 posted on 12/28/2013 1:37:19 PM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner

Of course it did. He was engaged in risky immoral activity while holding a high security clearance.

That opens him to potential blackmail and espionage. He would have also been susceptible had he been engaged in the procurement of street whores who happened to be women. The fact that he was trolling for pubescent boys just made him more susceptible. Also, at the time, just engaging in homosexual sex was a crime. Engaging in statutory rape is still a crime.


97 posted on 12/28/2013 5:12:18 PM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner

Chemical castration is not mutilation. It is hormone therapy. All side effects, if any, are temporary. Had they offered to remove his testicles, it would be mutilation. Had they tattooed ‘PERVERT’ on his forehead, it would be mutilation. Shots that alter libido are hardly mutilation.

Maybe not pleasant, but than again neither is a prison stint. He could have gone to prison. He chose not to.


98 posted on 12/28/2013 5:16:40 PM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 94 | View Replies]

To: Jim from C-Town

The Labouchere Amendment has nothing to do with security clearance or national security. Whatever connections you’re drawing between Turing’s extracurricular activities with gay men and thermonuclear war, the authorities were not using the same justifications at the time. I see no evidence that it was determining factor in charging and convicting Turing. In fact they charged his gay lover with the same crime, and he had no security clearance.


99 posted on 12/28/2013 6:39:05 PM PST by GunRunner
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: GunRunner

They didn’t have to did any further. They already had a security problem based on his ‘extracurricular’ activities. That is the idea behind blackmail. One would understand that he would like to hide his proclivities, among which was risky sexual activity with gay hustlers who where not lovers, they where prostitutes.

The fact that the activity was also illegal at the time allowed them to limit the exposure of state secrets and get their same results.


100 posted on 12/29/2013 3:01:07 PM PST by Jim from C-Town (The government is rarely benevolent, often malevolent and never benign!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 41-6061-8081-100101-103 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson