So much this. It drives me nuts that the narrative on this issue always seems to boil down to the idea that Turing somehow earned not being persecuted for being gay through his efforts in the war and the injustice was that the government didn't live up to its end of the bargain, not the fact that he and many others were driven to suicide or horrible lives by this terrible law.
This tweet pretty much sums up the whole problem with this pardon:
"So remember children-homosexuality is acceptable, but only if you also invent the computer & single-handedly defeat the Nazis" https://twitter.com/bristolpaul/status/415467991414083584
It's symbolic. The pardon does absolutely zero for Turing himself - he's long gone. It's symbolic that society is progressing and saying "we don't agree with this thing we used to do".
I agree that this is the intent, but it doesn't take much reading (on this comment page or nearly any press article about it) to see that it's extremely common for people to think that the injustice was particularly strong in Turing's case because he was brilliant.
My issue is less with the intent of the pardon and more with how it's presented in the media and how people think about it.
To give it a more positive spin: Turing's case highlights how not only unjust but simply stupid such prejudice is. His case provides a very public and undeniable example that keeps the issue in people's minds, essentially a form of martyrdom, highlighting how far we've come and (when you consider how much prejudice and related bad thinking is still common) how far we still need to go before we can truly consider ourselves civilised as a whole.
Also his brilliance does come into it once you consider the wider implications. What else could he have achieved (both for his own intellectual satisfaction and our eventual benefit) had he been allowed to continue his work as he wished? How many other people are out there (or were out there) who could have done great things but were not permitted to by society? While I agree that is is bad that we need him to stand as an example to highlight these issues, it is good that he does stand as that example to shine that light on the problem.
It doesn't even do that, pardon is more like forgiveness: "We forgive you for what you've done". And I don't think that's the same as admitting that law was bad.
I think what's interesting here is that socially conservative forces were able to get a man chemically castrated despite having done such a service to his country.
