Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch have joined the campaign to pardon persecuted homosexuals, under the same laws as Alan Turing and Oscar Wilde.

At least 49,000 people were charged with, and punished for, being gay.

Turing was convicted of gross indecency and sentenced to chemical castration in 1952 – it was a choice between that and imprisonment – for the charge of being gay. Homosexuality was only decriminalised in 1967, by which point Turing had already died of cyanide poisoning by his own hand.

In 2013, the Queen finally pardoned Turing for his crime.

However, there are still tens of thousands of men who were prosecuted for the same crimes – most of whom would still have surviving family members – and have yet to be pardoned for their sexuality.

Stephen Fry has stated, last week, that Turning should not have been pardoned “just because he is a genius”.

“Alan Turing was not only prosecuted, but quite arguably persuaded to end his own life early, by a society who called him a criminal for simply seeking out the love he deserved, as all human beings do. 60 years later, that same government claimed to ‘forgive’ him by pardoning him. I find this deplorable, because Turing’s actions did not warrant forgiveness — theirs did — and the 49,000 other prosecuted men deserve the same.”

Chad Griffin, the president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), seconded Fry’s sentiment:

“What was his crime? Winston Churchill said Alan Turing ‘made the single biggest contribution to the Allied victory in World War II.’  His crime was being gay. Over 49,000 other gay men and women were persecuted in England under the same law. Turing was pardoned by Queen Elizabeth II in 2013. The others were not.”

Benedict Cumberbatch replied to The Hollywood Reporter in an email, agreeing with Griffin and Fry:

“Alan Turing was not only prosecuted, but quite arguably persuaded to end his own life early, by a society who called him a criminal for simply seeking out the love he deserved, as all human beings do. 60 years later, that same government claimed to ‘forgive’ him by pardoning him. I find this deplorable, because Turing’s actions did not warrant forgiveness — theirs did — and the 49,000 other prosecuted men deserve the same.”

The Imitation Game, based on Alan Turing‘s time breaking the Enigma code during World War II, is nominated for eight Oscars and stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley.