Alan Turing Square

EDM number 901 in 2014-15, proposed by John Leech on 20/03/2015.
Categorised under the topics of Cultural heritage and Equality.

That this House welcomes the campaign to rename Leningrad Square in Wythenshawe after Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Questioning (LGBTQ) computer and Enigma code breaker, Alan Turing; notes that Manchester is currently twinned with St Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, the birthplace of Russia's appalling anti-gay laws which ban homosexual propaganda; further notes that Baby, the first modern computer, was born in Manchester thanks to Alan Turing's work at the University of Manchester; regrets that Turing was arrested by City of Manchester police in 1952 for homosexuality and was punished with chemical castration; further welcomes the posthumous Royal Pardon in 2013 and the campaign to achieve it; believes that Manchester's city leaders should stop honouring a city and country where LGBTQ people are so appallingly discriminated against; further regrets that too many LGBTQ people still suffer discrimination in the UK and abroad; recognises that renaming a landmark square after a gay Manchester hero would show solidarity to everyone fighting for equality in Manchester, Russia and around the world and that it would also help the fight to pardon the thousands of other gay men who were convicted of offences relating to their sexuality; and calls on Manchester City Council to back the campaign to rename the square in time for the 31 March anniversary of Alan Turing's conviction.

This motion has been signed by a total of 17 MPs.