News, Manchester
Greater Manchester Police’s chief constable has refused to apologise for what human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has described as “anti-LGBTQ+ persecution” in the force’s past.
Police chiefs across the country, including Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley, have apologised to the LGBTQ+ community following a campaign launched by the Peter Tatchell Foundation in 2023.
As part of the campaign, Mr Tatchell wrote to Greater Manchester Police (GMP) boss Stephen Watson, who declined to issue a general apology.
In a letter sent to Mr Tatchell in late April and seen by the , Mr Watson said such an apology could be seen as “superficial and merely performative”.
He said it would also “unfairly impugn the faithful and valued services of past officers” and likely “make little or no difference to developing contemporary practice”.
“I am of course sorry that GMP, and those police bodies which preceded the presently formed GMP prior to 1974, didn’t always perform to the standards deserved by those who we served,” Mr Watson said.
“It is also the case however that over these many decades, literally thousands of police officers have performed their duties with decency, professionalism and compassion.”
In response, Mr Tatchell said the the refusal to apologise was “an insult” given GMP’s “particularly troubling history”, particularly while the force was led by the late Sir James Anderton between 1975 and 1991.
ReutersIn the mid-1980s, at the height of the Aids crisis, Mr Anderton said gay men were “swirling about in a human cesspit of their own making”, resulting in calls for his resignation.
Mr Tatchell said: “We never disputed that many officers served well. Our request was solely an apology for those who acted in abusive and illegal ways.”
He said 21 chief constables had apologised to their LGBTQ+ communities to date.
“For many LGBT+ people, hearing their Chief Constable acknowledge historic mistreatment would be profoundly healing,” Mr Tatchell said.
“Apologies are not symbolic gestures. They are acts of justice.”
In his letter, Mr Watson said that while he would not issue a general apology, he would be “more than willing” to apologise to any individual who experienced “the sort of wrongdoing” Mr Tatchell described, if evidence were to be provided.
But Mr Tatchell said there were a number of “obvious and well-known” incidents where LGBTQ+ people were victimised by GMP, including raids on local gay venues during which patrons were subjected to “vindictive, malicious police harassment”.
“GMP was at the forefront of police homophobia in the UK,” he said.
Greater Manchester Police declined to comment further.
