Tory minister's filibuster kills Turing's law and pardons for 65,000 persecuted gay men

Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/10/22/tory-ministers-filibuster-ki.html

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Christ, what an asshole

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To be fair to the Tory government (wince) it’s not that uncommon for governments to do this (talk out Private Members’ Bills they ostensibly support the principle of).

PMBs are usually not drafted by the government’s parliamentary counsel, and the quality of them as legislation is pretty variable. If the government actually is intending to introduce its own pardons bill, it’s not surprising they’d prefer this other one not to make progress.

Of course, the other reason governments talk out Private Members’ Bills is because they disagree with them and have no intention of following them up with their own offering. So “Christ, what an asshole” may indeed be correct.

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I shudder to think how close we came to allowing tens of thousands of people who are no longer alive to be pardoned for having been convicted under the bigoted and hateful laws of the past. Thanks, Sam, for stepping in at the last minute to avert that unimaginable apocalypse, which would have had devastating effects on the lives of everyone in Britain. We sure dodged a bullet there.

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The gay people and friends I’ve known over the years have had a positive effect on my psyche I think and although most would probably still consider me a ‘Dick’ at times, have taught me to be less judgemental and more caring, usually very good listeners and not afraid to tell you the ugly truth.

A good film for you if you haven’t seen it is ‘Pride’ a British film about a group of gay people deciding to help the miners dispute, based on a true story and very funny.

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From the same debate, another Tory MP:

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For everyone who read about Turing’s bill passing and thought “This is so overdue, Who would even oppose it?”

Yeah, it remains a bitter fight. In 2016.

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Why? Just… for the love of Christ and God Almighty WHY?!

Even if you are Christian you should always extend a hand out. Even if the person is despicable and despicable you should try finding some way to not sink to lower yourself.

Even Hitler should have gotten a trial. His crimes hung 'round his neck and the rest of his days spent working to build a memorial to all the lives (gay, disabled, jew, gypsy, pole, all alike) that he had destroyed.

That fuckwad who raped a literal baby to death should not face execution. He should not get off so lucky as dying. He should spend the rest of his days being made to understand the gravity and depravity of what he has done, or failing that his mind and upbringings studied to find out WHY he did this.

Criminalizing homosexuality is a thing i cannot and will not agree with no matter my faith. Christ himself said the greatest virtue is Love and if two people love eachother truly I will not be the one to shout at them ‘God Hates You. you will Burn in Hell.’

Plenty enough straight people get the whole ‘love’ thing wrong. I say give everyone a fair shot so long as it’s consenting adults. This guy that opposed a law pardoning people? What does he hope to gain here? Maybe I read from the wrong bible, but I view this man as wrongheaded and using faith as an excuse to persicute rather than uplift. This is why faith should stay out of politics and politics out of faith. It grinds peopledown and destroys the soul until nothing but ash and shadows remain.

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Strip the bullshit away from that hate-filled piece of shit and you’ll get closer to the truth…conservatives anywhere can’t stand anyone who is different from them in any way. To think that Turing and 1000’s of other decent men and women have been robbed of a even a tiny speck of respect is sickening. He drags out that tired and disproven bullshit that all gays are pedophiles and get away with it. My feelings about gynimah and his ilk aren’t something I’m willing to put in print. I very much fear that the progress we as gay people have seen in the past few years are very tenuous. Once trump gets in office the hate-infected pigs like gynimah will be at the trough feeding on anything that looked like open-minded fairness. What a disappointment. trump should import him to be part of his cabinet…maybe some kind of watchdog on human rights…

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If most of todays “Christians” met Christ now they’d have him nailed up even quicker than they did 2000 years ago

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I’ve been trying to parse this out, and I think it may be more dysfunctional politics than anything else (although it was other things, too). The MP who filibustered seemed to have been supporting the idea beforehand, but didn’t want to advance legislation put forward by a rival party. This was the guy before his filibuster:

Today we fulfilling our manifesto pledge to formally pardon those convicted of historic anti-gay laws. #turingpardon https://t.co/Fo1lgqFC3N

— Sam Gyimah MP (@SamGyimah) October 20, 2016
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The prostitute coddling, communist Jew pacifist who wanted money changers out of the temple?

Yep, they’d have no patience for him at all.

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Conservative justice minister

That’s one of those things where the words in juxtaposition make no sense.

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To be fair, it’s not like the Labour justice ministers were exemplars of justice either

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I liked Michael Howard who kept getting his laws knocked back by the Law Lords.

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He was home secretary though, and I’m sure that has a definition in the OED that says “authoritarian nightmare”

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Justice Minster if different to Home Secretary? Blimey, how many people do they need to make up bad laws :smiley: Thanks for the clarification.

Tony Blair decided he needed more, so he created the Justice Ministry.

The Justice Minister is also the Lord Chancellor, which used to be a violation of the separation of powers. The Lord Chancellor was a member of the executive, legislature and judiciary until 2005.

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Ah, Tony Blair, say no more :wink:

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