SAY SORRY: Homo-Brits Demand Government Apology to 1950s Gay Math Whiz Alan Turing

In June we reported about the current “Gay Icons” exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London – a first-of-its-kind show featuring photos of global GLBT icons as selected by an esteemed panel including Elton John.

While we agreed that the show’s concept was superb, we pondered the wisdom of including numerous hetero famous folk such as Princess Di and Nelson Mandela.

One of the actual Gay people in the show, however, is Alan Turing — a brilliant English mathematician who killed himself back in 1954 following a British government-led witchhunt.

Indeed, in an episode which eerily foreshadows our own “don’t ask/don’t tell” military policies, Turing — who famously helped crack the Nazi Enigma code during WWII — was given the option of prison or chemical castration after being found guilty of homosexual conduct during a formal court trial.

He opted for the latter, but ended up committing suicide.

Now, more than one half century later, English computer programmer John Graham-Cumming has set up an online petition which demands the British government officially apologize to Turing.

He kinda deserves it — what with receiving numerous posthumous awards including the computing/math world equivelent of the Nobel Prize in honor of his invention, the Turing machine; a computer logic simulation device.

Graham-Cumming is looking for at least 500 UK citizens to sign the petition — the number he says is needed for some sort of official response.

While that leaves us out here at Transracial, we hope 500 signees is only just the beginning.