Western spy agencies learned from their mistakes on LGBTQ inclusion, but Israel's Shin Bet is going the other way

In 2021, Sir Richard Moore, head of Britain’s MI6, did something rare in intelligence work, he apologized. Not to a foreign government or the British public, but to people his service had excluded for decades simply because they were LGBTQ. Moore said that policy was “wrong, unjust and discriminatory,” adding, “Being LGBTQ did not make these people a threat to national security. Of course not.” He also admitted Britain had deprived itself of “some of the best talent Britain could offer.”

The article says that until the early 1990s, LGBTQ people were effectively barred from serving in British intelligence, with applicants rejected, employees fired, and others forced to live in fear of exposure because they were considered vulnerable to blackmail. It argues that Western intelligence services have since undergone a deep reckoning, and that most leading agencies in democratic countries now actively recruit, retain, and promote LGBTQ staff.

The United States is cited as a clear example. Its intelligence community and the Pentagon have, after decades in which sexual orientation could cost people security clearance, created official LGBTQ employee networks at the CIA, NSA, FBI and other agencies. They also take part in targeted job fairs, feature LGBTQ employees in recruitment campaigns, and publicly state that sexual or gender identity does not affect hiring or promotion.

Against that background, the article warns that Shin Bet chief David Zini’s position is troubling. It says modern intelligence understands that the real security risk comes from forcing people to hide, not from being LGBTQ. If young LGBTQ Israelis conclude they are technically allowed to serve but not truly wanted, the damage will fall on Shin Bet, which will lose talent, skills and potential future investigators, operatives, analysts and commanders.

The piece concludes that LGBTQ Israelis already prove their loyalty through service in the IDF, reserves, police, security services, hospitals, universities, industry and high tech. Western agencies apologized and changed course, while Israel, it argues, should not move backward or Shin Bet, and eventually all Israeli citizens, will pay the price.