Richard Moore, chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), has publicly apologised for the organisation’s historic treatment of LGBTQ+ people, including a ban on queer staff which was in place until 1991. Moore posted a video on Twitter, 30 years after the ban had been lifted, where he described the treatment of LGBTQ+ spies as “wrong, unjust and discriminatory”, adding MI6 “deprived ourselves of some of the best talent Britain could offer” by rejecting LGBTQ+ workers.
He continued: “Committed, talented, public-spirited people had their careers and lives blighted because it was argued that being LGBTQ+ was incompatible with being an intelligence professional. Because of this policy, other loyal and patriotic people had their dreams of serving their country in MI6 shattered.” Moore, who is the only publicly identifiable member of MI6, said he had chosen LGBTQ+ History Month to speak out against discrimination.
He also thanked former and contemporary LGBTQ+ MI6 workers: “I pay tribute to the extraordinary resilience and loyalty to service and country of LGBTQ+ colleagues past and present, who educated their workmates and fought for change. As well as apologising, I am thanking current and former LGBTQ+ colleagues, for the contribution they have made, and continue to make, to MI6, and to our country.”