Britain's MI6 spy master apologises for historic discrimination against LGBT+ people

The chief of Britain's MI6 foreign intelligence service publicly apologised on Friday for historic discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT+) people in the spy agencies before 1991.

Britain decriminalised homosexual acts between men in 1967, but its spy agencies refused to hire gay, lesbian and transgender officers until 1991 because they believed they would be susceptible to blackmail. "Until 1991, being openly LGBT+ in MI6 would cause you to lose your job or prevent you from being allowed to join in the first place," said Richard Moore, chief, or C, of the Secret Intelligence Agency (SIS).

"Committed, talented, public-spirited people had their careers and lives blighted because it was argued that being LGBT+ was incompatible with being an intelligence professional," Moore said. "This was wrong, unjust and discriminatory."

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