John Kerry Apologizes for State Department’s History of LGBT Discrimination

Outgoing Secretary of State John Kerry apologized to the LGBT community today by acknowledging that the State Department hasn’t always been an ally to the community and had discriminating against applicants and employees for being gay.

“In the past ― as far back as the 1940s, but continuing for decades ― the Department of State was among many public and private employers that discriminated against employees and job applicants on the basis of perceived sexual orientation, forcing some employees to resign or refusing to hire certain applicants in the first place,” Kerry said in a statement. “These actions were wrong then, just as they would be wrong today.”

Kerry continued with a formal apology saying: “On behalf of the Department, I apologize to those who were impacted by the practices of the past and reaffirm the Department’s steadfast commitment to diversity and inclusion for all our employees, including members of the LGBTI community.”

Since Kerry, the State Department has hired a special envoy for human rights of LGBTI people, but it was a little over a half a decade ago when the department famously targeted the LGBT community in something known as the Lavender Scare. [HuffPo]