Writer and activist, Nicolas Chinardet, has written a passionate critique of the recent apology made by England's Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, to gay World War 2 hero, Alan Turing (pictured). Who was Alan Turing? Turing was a British mathematician, whose persistence and brilliance was the key to breaking the Nazi's secret Enigma communications code. Although his efforts have long been regarded by historians as fundamental in steering the war back in favour of the allied forces, Turing was eventually disgraced and discarded by the government he helped to protect, because he was homosexual. Later convicted of gross indecency for having sex with a man, Turing was forced to receive female hormone treatments as a means of reducing his sex drive. Sadly, as a result of this, Turing committed suicide in 1954, at the age of 41.

A stage play called Breaking The Code was successfully produced in London's West End and on Broadway. The play starred gifted British actor, Derek Jacobi, who later appeared in the 1996 BBC film version. Jacobi won a Broadcasting Press Guild Award, a GLAAD Media Award and was nominated for two BAFTA TV awards, for Best Single Drama and Best Actor. I've seen the movie and Jacobi is wonderful in the role as Alan Turing. It is well worth checking out.

An apology is not enough, Mr Brown by Nicolas Chinardet:
As news comes that [Britsh Prime Minister] Gordon Brown has taken the highly unusual step to actually grant the demanded apology, I can't help but wonder once again, as does Peter Tatchell and no doubt a few others, why Alan Turing should be singled out. Why should he be the only one deserving of an apology for the "utterly unfair" treatment he has received at the hand of the government of the time?

Tatchell, in his lukewarm praise of Brown's apology as "commendable", reminds us that an "estimated 100,000 British men [...] were also convicted of consenting, victimless same-sex relationships during the twentieth century". And then there were the others before that whose lives were destroyed (all too often literally) for who they were and who they loved.

An apology is, of course, a potent symbol, but what is an apology by people who weren't involved to someone who is dead going to achieve? Especially when so many inequalities, humiliations and rebuffs are still visited on LGBT people today around the world. Indeed, at the same time that Brown was apologising to a British citizen for the treatment he received for his homosexuality, another British citizen was being killed in Jamaica for the exact same sorry reason.

Finally, let's not forget, at the risk of seeming ungrateful perhaps, that while the Prime Minister may have apologised, Turing is still officially a criminal. He and all the others should be pardoned, not solely apologised to. What are you going to do about Mr Brown? An apology is not enough. Read more here.

Gay wartime code-breaker Alan Turing gets U.K. apology