(London) M15, Britain’s domestic spy agency, has begun looking for gays and lesbians to help it keep tabs on threats to the country.
The agency has contracted with LGBT rights group Stonewall to help it recruit members of the community and to encouraged gays already in the service to come out.
The move, said Stonewall spokesperson Ben Summerskill, “is in recognition that the establishment is changing and slowly becoming more reflective of wider society.”
The British military long ago abandoned its ban on gays serving openly and also recently asked Stonewall for help in recruitment. M16, the country’s foreign intelligence service, ended its ban on gay spies a year ago.
Homosexuality was decriminalized in the UK in 1967 but gays and lesbians were barred from working in sensitive jobs in the diplomatic or security services until the early 1990s, over concerns that gay spies could be vulnerable to blackmail.
http://www.365gay.com/news/081808-britain-recruiting-gay-spies/