Pet Shop Boys Working on Alan Turing Project

You might not realize it Stateside, but it's the centenary of Alan Turing's birth, the grandfather of computer science, and the UK has been pulling out the stops. Manchester dedicated its Gay Pride Parade, with the theme "Queer'd Science," to the trailblazer and hero (he also helped win WWII), as well as several exhibits around the city. There's a special-edition Monopoly game dedicated to him. And the biography by Andrew Hodges, Alan Turing: The Enigma, has been reissued. Now the Pet Shops Boys are getting in the action.

According to a story in The Guardian, the duo is working with the BBC Philharmonic on a piece of music about Alan Turing, who was prosecuted for homosexuality. As Neil Tennant says: "A terrible story. Of course the reason they won't pardon Alan Turing is because they'd have to pardon all those homosexual men. Well why don't they? Why don't they pardon them all, actually?"

Don't forget that Leonardo DiCaprio is trying to make a movie about the man who is, arguably, the greatest gay hero of the 20th century.