Joe Biden has moved to correct a “great injustice” by pardoning thousands of US veterans convicted over six decades under a military law that banned gay sex.
The presidential proclamation, which comes during Pride month and an election year, allows LGBTQ+ service members convicted of crimes based solely on their sexual orientation to apply for a certificate of pardon that will help them receive withheld benefits.
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It grants clemency to service members convicted under Uniform Code of Military Justice article 125 – which criminalised sodomy, including between consenting adults – between 1951 and 2013, when it was rewritten by Congress.
That includes victims of the 1950s “lavender scare”, a witch-hunt in which many LGBTQ+ people employed by the federal government were viewed as security risks amid fears their sexual orientation made them vulnerable to blackmail. Thousands were investigated and fired or denied employment.
Just wait until you learn about Alan Turing, the guy who made the Turing Machine (considered the first computer).
He committed suicide by eating an apple laced with cyanide because the US government chemically castrated gay men like him - forced them to take drugs so that they couldn’t “get it up” to prevent them from committing “deviant behavior”.
And that wasn’t outside the norm 100 years ago for governments to do.
As much as the US government sucks in this department, Turing was a UK citizen suffering under UK law, not US.
He was British. It was the UK government.
Just a correction, it isn’t entirely certain whether he killed himself or not. The apple wasn’t tested for cyanide and the chances he just inhaled too much while working are considerable.
Well, not that it changes anything about the horrible treatment he received because of his orientation though.
Fyi, an alternative interpretation of the Turing Test was an allegory for his homosexuality.
It wasn’t the US.