Isle of Man: Convicted gay men to be pardoned in June

Men convicted of historical homosexual offences on the Isle of Man will be pardoned in June, the Justice and Home Affairs Minister has said.

Jane Poole-Wilson has confirmed her department intends to switch on the relevant section of the Sexual Offences and Obscene Publications Act 2021.

This year marks 30 years since homosexual acts were decriminalised.

Ms Poole-Wilson said the automatic pardons were important to address the hurt caused by previous laws.

She said the Department of Home Affairs would now draft an Appointed Day Order, to be laid before Tynwald in June, which will commence the new provisions.

Under the changes, there would be an automatic pardon for those with historic convictions for consensual homosexual offences "that would no longer be regarded as an offence today", Ms Poole-Wilson said.

However, where there are convictions on people's records, there will be a disregard process available.

That means people will be able to apply to have those historic convictions removed from their record.

Former Chief Minister Howard Quayle previously issued an apology for the "misguided and wrong" historic laws.

Ms Poole-Wilson said it was "really important that we acknowledge in full" that the previous laws caused "a lot of damage and hurt to people over the years".

"We were criminalising people for who they are, and who they love. We recognise today that that was the wrong thing to do, and people should not have convictions on their record for who they are and who they loved," she said.

The new Act, which was given Royal Assent last year, will replace all current sexual offence legislation when it fully commences.

Ms Poole Wilson said that process would be progressed over the next two years.

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