MEN CONVICTED UNDER ANTI-GAY LAWS GET PARDONS

Thousands of men who were convicted under now-abolished British laws against homosexuality are to receive posthumous pardons, the government announced Thursday.

Those who are still alive will be eligible to have their criminal records wiped clean. Men living with convictions can apply to the government to have their names cleared.

Calls for a general pardon have been building since Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing was awarded a posthumous royal pardon in 2013. The computer science pioneer helped crack Nazi Germany’s secret codes by creating the “Turing bombe,” a forerunner of modern computers. After the war, Turing was prosecuted for having sex with a man.