UK’s pardon for gays meant to ‘put right these wrongs’

LONDON — 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.

The Ministry of Justice said the pardons apply to men convicted for consensual same-sex sexual relations before homosexuality was decriminalized several decades ago. Men living with convictions can apply to the government to have their names cleared.

Justice Minister Sam Gyimah said the government was trying “to put right these wrongs.”

“It is hugely important that we pardon people convicted of historical sexual offenses who would be innocent of any crime today,” he said.

Calls for a general pardon have been building since World War II 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, stripped of his security clearance and forcibly treated with female hormones.

A few other countries, including Canada and New Zealand, are considering pardons for people convicted under now-repealed laws against gay sex.

Gay-rights advocacy groups in the United States said they knew of no U.S. state that had contemplated similar action.

However, the U.S. military adopted a policy which enabled gay soldiers who had been forced out to upgrade their discharges from dishonorable to honorable.