David Cameron, the British prime minister, is trying to make amends for the sordid treatment of a long persecuted minority in his country: If his Conservatives win the coming elections, he's promised to grant posthumous pardons to all those convicted of homosexual behavior ("indecent acts") in the past. It's been their treatment by the law, not their behavior, that's been indecent.
Among the more prominent victims of this unholy crusade against homosexuals have been Oscar Wilde, the flamboyant 19th Century poet, wit and gadabout ("The Ballad of Reading Gaol") and, in the 20th Century, the brilliant Alan Turing--the genius who broke the Germans' "unbreakable" code during the Second World War, shortening the war by years. His contributions to the war effort at Bletchley Park, the center of British cryptography, were only part of his mathematical legacy to future generations.
It wasn't just the exceptional poet or mathematician who was victimized by the persecution of homosexuals--but people of every station in life who found themselves outed by this alliance of misguided medicine and medieval superstition carried over into "modern" times. It is good to see a political leader trying to make amends at last. Mr. Cameron's may be only a gesture in the right direction, but it's one worth making. Because it's never too late to do right.
Editorial on 04/18/2015