LGBTQ+ DIPLOMATS
FOREIGN BODIES
Last month, the Foreign Office apologised for a historic ban on gay, lesbian and transgender people working in the diplomatic service that lasted for 25 years after homosexuality was decriminalised. Attitude meets four LGBTQ+ Foreign Office diplomats to learn about the legacy of the ban and how it impacted their lives and their careers
Words Lerone Clarke-Oliver
Ina statement made last month, 30 years after the biased and discriminatory policy banning LGBTQ+ people working for the government’s diplomatic services was lifted, the Foreign Office apologised for its “misguided” position and stated its regret for the exclusion of queer diplomats.
“The ban was in place because there was a perception that LGBT people were more susceptible than their straight counterparts to blackmail and, therefore, that they posed a security risk.” Sir Philip Barton, Permanent Under-Secretary at the Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) and Head of the Diplomatic Service, said in the statement. “Because of this misguided view, people’s careers were ended, cut short, or stopped before they could even begin. And the diplomatic service undoubtedly deprived itself of some of the UK’s brightest and best talent.”
Barton added, “I want to apologise publicly for the ban and the impact it had on our LGBT staff and their loved ones, both here in the UK and abroad.”
BECKS BUCKINGHAM,
Chargé d’Affaires ad interim, British Embassy, Venezuela
Becks Buckingham is bisexual and is married to her non-binary partner. She serves as Chargé d’Affaires ad interim at the British Embassy in Venezuela and has been working for the Foreign Office since the 90s. Joining the organisation on the cusp of the ban being lifted means she has “literally seen and experienced the internal cultural shift [in attitudes towards LGBTQ+ members of staff] within the organisation” as well as the cultural moving-of-the-needle externally.