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When this was first being discussed and debated in British Parliament I thought it was an excellent idea to help heal wounds created in the past. During that p
by theluketaylor 10y ago
When this was first being discussed and debated in British Parliament I thought it was an excellent idea to help heal wounds created in the past. During that process I saw comments from some gay men saying they didn't want a pardon; they didn't do anything wrong. I'm not sure I've ever been so changed on any issue with a single statement before.
Pardon implies forgivness for wrongdoing, but these men don't need or want that, they didn't do anything wrong. The establishment that passed laws limiting love are the ones in need of forgiveness. There needs to be a legal mechanism to automatically expunge criminal records for social issues once society has managed to catch up with the people it deemed rule breakers in the past other than a pardon. A pardon is just the wrong mechanism to deliver an apology.
- theoh 10y agoAnother possible aspect of this, which complicates in some ways what you said in your comment, is that the earlier special pardon for Turing was, to my mind at least, a patronizing idea that cast him as an unworldly "innocent". Gordon Brown, the British PM at the time, made a statement in which he repeatedly referred to Turing as "Alan". It was obviously insincere and came across as inappropriate and condescending. There's work to be done here, all right.