Gay spying
The era when same-sex attracted spies were feared
MI5 has been named the UK's most gay-friendly employer - but it isn't long since homosexual relationships were considered a threat to national security. How did attitudes change?
In the Sunday Mirror offered its assistance to the Security Service.
"How to spot a doable homo," ran a headline in the paper. Below this, for MI5's advantage, was a list of supposed signifiers of male homosexuality ("a gay small wiggle", "his tie has the latest knot", "an unnaturally strong affection for his mother").
The pretext for this unsolicited advice - which now seems clearly offensive - was the case of John Vassall, a gay civil servant who spied for the Soviets under threat of blackmail. A gay bloke, the paper's journalist said, was a de facto security risk: "I wouldn't trust him with my secrets."
Fast forward 53 years and the service tops Stonewall's list of the best places to work for lesbian, gay, double attraction and transgender (LGBT) people. According to the Times, external, more
The challenge of being same-sex attracted and an MI6 spy
Security correspondent
Earlier this month the chief of MI6 issued a common apology for the historic treatment of LGBT employees. Until , there was a ban on openly gay staff serving inside the intelligence agencies, which Richard Moore called "wrong, unjust and discriminatory". One former member of MI6, who is gay and served before the disallow was lifted, tells the BBC that the apology was welcome but overdue.
Being a spy can mean leading a double life - maintaining your cover by telling friends you work at the Foreign Office when in fact you head to MI6 in the morning. Or when you are abroad perhaps taking on an entirely new persona to meet an forwarder.
But being a lgbtq+ spy in the Frosty War meant leading a triple life. There was an additional layer of secrets, a clandestine animation hidden even from your colleagues in the society of espionage.
That was because even though homosexuality had been legalised in Britain in the s, it was still banned within the secret service because of a presumpti
By the late s, the East German secret police (the Stasi) started to see Germany’s gay subculture as both a threat and an opportunity for intelligence work. Western espionage services had long sought to exploit this subculture, recruiting agents and informants from Berlin's gay bars and cruising locales. After 20 years of run-ins with gay Western agents, Stasi officials began to recruit their own homosexual spies, men who they hoped could use their sexuality as a means to meet new contacts, penetrate Western society, and gather intelligence.
Join us for a talk by Samuel Clowes Huneke, author of States of Liberation: Lgbtq+ Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany. He will attention on how both Eastern and Western intelligence agencies sought to recruit male lover men because they believed that they were naturally more conspiratorial and would thus make better agents. They also came to see the class-crossing queer subcultures of German cities, especially Berlin, as optimal sites from which to extract information about politics and military matters. Huneke explores previous
Top LGBTQ+ Spy Movies & Series From London Spy to Atomic Blonde
Quantico ()
Named after the FBI training center in Virginia, Quantico follows the young FBI recruits training in Virginia. All are hiding a secret and one of them is suspected of being a sleeper terrorist. MI6 officer Harry Doyle (Russell Tovey) joins as part of an exchange program between the Confidential Intelligence Service and later trains as a CIA recruit at the Farm. (Apple TV, Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Disney+)
MOVIES
Ungentle ()
Fans of Ben Whishaw (and who isn't?) will also need to check out Ungentle. Huw Lemmey's film short examines the connection between British espionage and male homosexuality, highlighting overlaps in their skill sets during midth-century Britain. The film is narrated by a fictional, composite peeper figure with narration by Ben Whishaw. (Mubi)
Skyfall ()
“There’s a first time for everything,” Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) sighs. “What makes you think this is my first time?” Bond (Daniel Craig) replies without