Tories filibuster ‘Turing Bill’ – denying pardons to 50,000 living gay men | Left Foot Forward

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queeranarchism:

A private members bill aiming to erase the criminal records of gay men convicted of now-defunct sexual offences was talked out by Tories in the House of Commons this afternoon.
If passed, it would have cleared the way for a pardon of nearly 50,000 men living with convictions for consensual homosexual activity.

This is honestly so important. The people that paved the way for us queer young people are still stuck with criminal records for having queer sex or ‘wearing the wrong clothes’ in just about every country and we need to fucking organize and support them and realize these political games for what they are: an attack on our queer elders.

I was not happy about this bill because of the flawed logic underlining it. to pardon someone of a crime means you believe there was a crime in the first place. it’s only by your mercy and better nature that you are now letting it go for the greater good. But as this gentleman eloquently explains, any crime committed was on the side of the government who violated people’s human rights without any justification other than its own overbearing bigotry. 

BUT if this bill would erase the criminal records and exonerate our elders as the courts do when they overturn a false conviction, and help people out of bureaucratic snares caused by these false criminal records, then CURSES AND DAMNATION ON THE TORY PARTY. actually, even if it is just a cop out pardon on the table, SHAME on THEM AND THE UK.

And I do hope this hapless bill includes other members of the community, not just gay men.. *raised eyebrow* 

*nod nod*

I’m seeing a lot of countries where there are a few older gay rights activists fighting for the exoneration of people convincted of things like same-sex contact and sex at cruising places and I 100% support that and wish young LGBT activisits would spend more time on this. 

But I do find it very frustrating when these same activists overlook or purposely neglect historic convictions of cross-dressing, public indecency and prostitution far more often employed against trans people. 

And I also fear that if these sort of exonerations take place piece-by-piece one type of conviction at a time, only the ‘respectable’ gay men convicted of nothing but same-sex contactr will get their exoneration while trans people and cruisers will not get anywhere near enough support to do the same.

Tories filibuster ‘Turing Bill’ – denying pardons to 50,000 living gay men | Left Foot Forward