Source: Telegraph (London), Times (London)
The British intelligence service, MI5, which deals with counter-terrorism within the UK, has hired the country's largest LGBT advocacy group to help it attract a broader range of candidates.

MI5 will appear in this year's graduate recruitment guide published by Stonewall, the Telegraph and the Times report. The guide lists gay-friendly employers.

Until the early 1990s, gays had been barred from sensitive government jobs because of fears they would be open to blackmail.

Ben Summerskill, director of Stonewall, who coincidentally went to school with MI5's Director-general Jonathan Evans, said, "I am optimistic that in 10 to 15 years their [MI5's] employment profile will look very much like modern Britain. There is no reason why there shouldn't be a lesbian or gay director-general."

A Whitehall source confirmed MI5 was working with Stonewall, saying, "The service seeks to reflect the broad range of UK society which it serves."

Since the London Underground bombings on July 7, 2005, MI5 has been expanding rapidly. Staff numbers are expected to hit 3,500 by the end of the year, up from 1,500 in 2001, the Times reports.

The drive to recruit British Muslims and speakers of Asian languages has been well reported, but MI5’s targeting of the gay community will come as something of a surprise, the Times notes.

Explaining why MI5 might wish to recruit from the gay community, Summerskill explained, "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 has already been working with MI5 to set up a gay and lesbian network at the agency to work with spy chiefs on policy. Stonewall, which was paid for its work, has also been advising on how to create a working environment where gay officers can feel comfortable about "coming out".

In the past, gay staff were nervous about revealing their sexual orientation to colleagues because it might lead to claims that they had lied to recruiters when they joined.

Some in the British press, and perhaps in the spy agency, haven't been able to get over the 1950s revelation that intelligence officers Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt and three fellow Cambridge graduates had betrayed allied secrets to the Soviets before and during the Cold War.

Both the Times and Telegraph mention the old spy story in their articles on the MI5 move.

Both Burgess and Blunt were gay, and that led some to conclude that all gay people would be security risks. Other members of the "Cambridge 5" were not gay, but that didn't lead to doubts about heterosexuals in general.

Source: MI5 links up with gay lobby Stonewall | Telegraph (London) 
Spies urged to come in from the closet | Times (London)
Guy Burgess | Wikipedia