British spy chief apologizes for how GCHQ has treated gay people, including Alan Turing
LONDON — The head of Britain's digital espionage agency has apologized for the organization's historic prejudice against homo***uals, saying it failed to learn from the treatment of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing.
In a rare public speech, GCHQ chief Robert Hannigan told a gathering organized by the human rights group Stonewall that its ban on homo***uals had caused long-lasting psychological damage to many and hurt the agency because talented people were excluded from working there.
"The fact that it was common practice for decades reflected the intolerance of the times and the pressures of the Cold War, but it does **t make it any less wrong and we should apologize for it," Hannigan said Friday at the Stonewall Workplace Conference. Read more...