Gay spy
By the late 1960s, the East German secret police (the Stasi) started to see Germany’s homosexual 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 male lover Western agents, Stasi officials began to recruit their have gay spies, men who they hoped could use their sexuality as a means to encounter new contacts, penetrate Western society, and gather intelligence.
Join us for a discuss by Samuel Clowes Huneke, author of States of Liberation: Gay Men between Dictatorship and Democracy in Cold War Germany. He will focus on how both Eastern and Western intelligence agencies sought to recruit gay men because they believed that they were naturally more conspiratorial and would thus craft better agents. They also came to see the class-crossing gay subcultures of German cities, especially Berlin, as preferred sites from which to extract data about politics and military matters. Huneke explores previously untapped German archives to capture this surprising story of espionage and emancipation with
The era when gay spies were feared
MI5 has been named the UK's most gay-friendly employer - but it isn't long since same-sex relationships were considered a threat to national security. How did attitudes change?
In 1963 the Sunday Mirror offered its assistance to the Security Service.
"How to spot a possible homo," ran a headline in the paper. Below this, for MI5's benefit, was a list of supposed signifiers of male homosexuality ("a gay little 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 queer man, the paper's reporter 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 2016 list of the 400 best places to function for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people. According to the Times, external, more than 80 of its employees pertain to an LGBT staff network.
The challenge of being lgbtq+ and an MI6 spy
Security correspondent
Earlier this month the chief of MI6 issued a general apology for the historic treatment of LGBT employees. Until 1991, 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 prohibit 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 self to meet an intermediary.
But being a lgbtq+ spy in the Cool War meant leading a triple life. There was an additional layer of secrets, a clandestine animation hidden even from your colleagues in the planet of espionage.
That was because even though homosexuality had been legalised in Britain in the 1960s, it was still banned within the secret service because of a presumption that homosexuality made someone "unfit" for access to classified information.
Top LGBTQ+ Spy Movies & Series From London Spy to Atomic Blonde
Quantico (2015-2018)
Named after the FBI training center in Virginia, Quantico follows the young FBI recruits training in Virginia. All are hiding a covert 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 Classified Intelligence Service and later trains as a CIA recruit at the Farm. (Apple TV, Prime Video, YouTube, Google Play, Disney+)
MOVIES
Ungentle (2022)
Fans of Ben Whishaw (and who isn't?) will also long to check out Ungentle. Huw Lemmey's film short examines the connection between British espionage and male homosexuality, emphasizing overlaps in their skill sets during mid-20th-century Britain. The film is narrated by a make-believe, composite spy figure with narration by Ben Whishaw. (Mubi)
Skyfall (2012)
“There’s a first time for everything,” Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) sighs. “What makes you consider this is my first time?” Bond (Daniel Craig) replies without missing a beat. Bond movies are often racy but Skyfall adds a twist. In the d