Alan Turing biopic The Imitation Game honoured with GLAAD award

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a white background.

The Imitation Game has picked up a GLAAD Award for its portrayal of gay codebreaker Alan Turing.

The drama, which stars Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley,  is based on the life of gay World War II codebreaker Alan Turing.

Turing, often hailed as the grandfather of modern computing, was convicted of ‘gross indecency’ in 1952 after having sex with a man, and was chemically castrated, barred from working for GCHQ, and eventually driven to suicide.

The film was victorious at the Media Awards held by LGBT rights charity GLAAD, winning the Outstanding Film category.

Mr Cumberbatch did not attend the ceremony, leaving screenwriter Graham Moore and producer Ido Ostrowsky to collect the award.

Amazon’s groundbreaking series Transparent picked up the award for Outstanding Comedy Series, while How to Get Away with Murder won Outstanding Drama.

Meanwhile, Doctor Who lost out on the award for Outstanding Individual Episode for the Series 8 opener ‘Deep Breath’ – which portrayed married lesbians Jenny Flint and Madam Vastra.

The band Against Me! picked up the award for Outstanding Music Artist, for an album which deals with the transition of singer Laura Jane Grace.

Meanwhile, HBO’s AIDS drama The Normal Heart won the award for Outstanding TV Movie or Mini-Series.

One of the highest awards of the night, the Vanguard Award, was presented to Scandal star Kerry Washington
by Ellen DeGeneres.

The Imitation Game picked up an Oscar last month – though Benedict Cumberbatch lost out on ‘Best Actor. The film unexpectedly went home empty-handed from the BAFTAs and Golden Globes.