Stephen Fry’s campaign to pardon all gay men ruined by ‘malicious’ law

Stephen Fry and Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein will campaign for pardons for thousands of British men convicted of homosexual acts.

At least 50,000 are believed to have been persecuted, imprisoned or chemically castrated under section 11 of the Criminal Law Amendment Act 1885, eventually overturned in 1967.

The issue arose after the release of The Imitation Game, the biopic of war-time code-breaker Alan Turing. He was prosecuted for homosexual acts under the old law in 1952 and committed suicide two years later.

The Oscar-nominated film is produced by Weinstein and stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Turing. He was pardoned by the government in 2009 but thousands more have not received the same treatment.

Fry, 57, was a guest speaker at a London screening of the film, where he said: “There is a feeling that if Alan Turing was pardoned then perhaps so should all of those men whose names were ruined in their lifetime.

“It was a nasty, malicious and horrific law that allowed so much blackmail, misery and distress.

“Turing stands as a figure symbolic to his own age in the same way as Oscar Wilde, who suffered under a similar law.” Fry — pictured with new husband Elliot Spencer, 27 — and Weinstein now plan a special screening of the movie.

Campaigner Peter Tatchell, Attitude magazine and other high-profile figures in the gay community will help in launching the crusade.

Fry is also campaigning to have Turing’s face put on the back of the £10 note.