The head of MI6 has issued a public apology for unjust treatment in the past of staff and recruits because of their sexuality, acknowledging that talented and brave people who wanted to serve their country suffered because of ignorance and prejudice.
Moore, who took over as MI6 chief in October, said that until 1991 — nearly 25 years after same-sex relationships were decriminalized in the U.K. — being an openly LGBTIperson while working as a spy “would cause you to lose your job or prevent you from being allowed to join in the first place.” A directive that stemmed from “the misguided view that [LGBTI spies] would be more susceptible to blackmail than straight people.”
Moore’s first prominent appointment was as the British Ambassador to Turkey. He held this post for three years, from 2014 to 2017. He spent a short period of time working as Deputy National Security Advisor (Intelligence, Security and Resilience) in 2018. He held the appointment of Director-General, Political in the FCDO from 2018 until August 2020. On the 29 July 2020, it was announced that Moore would become the Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) in autumn 2020.He took up this position on the 1 October of the same year.
Fans of the popular BBC series Sherlock have been lobbying show creator Mark Gatiss to write a gay relationship between Sherlock and Watson into the plot.
Gatiss said he had been inundated with plotline ideas and even explicit drawings sugeesting a relationship between Sherlock played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Watson (Martin Freeman).
Gatiss told DNA that fans had been urging him to make the dynamic crime fighting duo a couple since injecting sexual innuendo into the plot of the previous series.
Gatiss told DNA: “Oh my God. I get sent things that would make your hair turn white. It’s not just Sherlock and Watson holding hands on a park bench, I can tell you that.
“Some of them are incredibly graphic but my goodness I’ve not tried half the things they’re doing.”
It’s not the first occasion that the great detective and his sidekick have been rumoured to be gay. In the 1970s Billy Wilder film, it was joked that Sherlock and Watson were a couple.
Gatiss said this is where he and co-creator Steven Moffat took their lead.
Nonetheless Gatiss said there are no plans at this stage to turn the pair into a couple.
A fourth series of Sherlock has been commissioned by the BBC and will air later this year. The BBC has also announced plans for a special feature length episode to begin filming in January 2015.
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