Gays where until recently seen as potential security risks but now MI5 is reaching out to Britain's gay community as part of an ongoing recruitment drive, a shift that is long overdue according to gay rights activist Peter Tatchell.

"Until a decade ago, gay people were seen as a security threat, and as recently as two decades ago, they were being witch hunted and sacked from the security services," he said Monday.

"It was part of the Cold War mentality that saw security threats, traitors, and spies everywhere," he said. "Gay people were regarded as vulnerable to blackmail, even if they were open and out about their sexuality."

Stonewall, the gay lobby group, has been hired to advise MI5, the domestic arm of the intelligence services, on how to encourage its spies to be more open about their sexuality and how to attract more gay applicants for posts.

The spy agency is shaking off its clubby image and becoming more representative of the community it serves, said Ben Summerskill, chief executive officer the gay rights group Stonewall, which publishes a job hunting guide that includes the spy agency as a prospective employer.

"My recent experience of them is that they're not John le Carre, Graham Greene — it's not that sort of tableau anymore," Summerskill said Monday.

"There is no reason why there shouldn't be a lesbian or gay director general. I am optimistic that in ten to 15 years their (MI5's) employment profile will look very much like modern Britain.

"People from all minority communities do have experience of getting on with people who are different and of fitting in. They are also good at doing these things in a way that is not conspicuous."

Stonewall is working with MI5 to create a workplace environment that is supportive of gay people.

Garry Hindle, the head of security and counterintelligence at the Royal United Services Institute for Defense and Security Studies, said MI5's inclusion in the gay and lesbian job guide is about inclusion, but it's also about image.

"They're trying to portray themselves as an open, inclusive organization that's working for the good of the community," Hindle said. But "it does need diverse members of society to be able to access the diverse members of society that they may have interest in."

The agency would say only that "the service seeks to reflect the broad range of U.K. society which it serves."

Last update: 01-29-2009 18:42