“We owe it to the LGBT community” – Miliband announces Labour would pass ‘Turing’s Law’

Ed Miliband has said that Labour would posthumously pardon men who had were prosecuted for being gay under the gross indecency law (which made all sexual acts between men illegal).

This would be known as ‘Turing’s Law’. It would be named after Alan Turing, the WWII codebreaker who was convicted for being gay in 1952. Turing was pardoned in 2013, 54 years after his death. However many other men who were convicted because of their sexuality have not had their names cleared.

In an interview with the Gay Times, the Labour Leader said he wanted this saw pardon to be applied to others convicted:

 “I think it’s worth saying that we do want to extend the principles being applied to Alan Turing and his family, to be able to say to others who were convicted of a criminal offence simply because of the person that they loved – whether they are alive or no longer alive – that we can get a pardon for them. 

“I think it’s a stain on our society, frankly. I think it’s right what’s been done in relation to Alan Turing and his family, but there are also other families that will have had relatives who were convicted, as I say, simply because of the person they love. And I think it’s time we acted for them, too. 

“I think we owe it to the LGBT community to make this move.”