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# MI6 chief apologises for LGBTQ+ staff ban
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/mi6-chief-apologises-for-lgbtq-staff-ban/
- Published: 2021-02-22T09:09:36.000Z
- Updated: 2021-02-22T11:59:06.000Z
- Description: Richard Moore, chief of the UK Secret Intelligence Service (MI6), has publicly apologised for the organisation’s historic treatment of LGBTQ+ people.
- Author: Rachel Badham
- Tags: News, Politics, Queer Corner, equality, LGBTQ, LGBTQ+ rights, MI6, queer, UK

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/richard-moore-mi6-600-400.jpg)

Richard Moore

**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](https://twitter.com/ChiefMI6/status/1362733197449170953?ref=scenemag.co.uk), 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.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/mi6-hq-600-400.jpg)

The MI6 HQ in London

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.

![](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/content/images/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/lgbt-history-month-600.jpg)

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.”*