Chief Minister Howard Quayle has given a formal apology for the Isle of Man’s former laws against homosexuality - and for the lives they ruined.

The historic gesture was made in the House of Keys on Tuesday, as MHKs passed the Sexual Offences and Obscene Publications Bill, which will grant an automatic pardon to anyone who was convicted under previous laws that made homosexual activity illegal.

Watched from the public gallery by Alan Shea - who spearheaded the campaign for reform 30 years ago - Mr Quayle acknowledged that the former ’misguided’ and ’unjust’ laws probably led to some people taking their own lives.

’As Chief Minister I stand before you and before the people of our island to apologise for those laws - for the damage they may have caused and the lives they ruined,’ he said.

’I am sorry for that wrong.’

He added: ’We will never know the hurt our past laws may have inflicted on our own people.

’How many suffered, how many perhaps took their own lives and how many left their island never to return.’

The law was changed in 1994, following widespread pressure from the international community and increased strength of support that came from within the island.

Mr Quayle said: ’It now seems incomprehensible that homosexuality was illegal on our island until 1994.

’That there was a time when consensual sexual activity between men in the privacy of their own homes was seen as a criminal activity, warranting raids, searches and prosecution.’

People lived in fear and people were convicted ’simply for loving another adult’.

He said bill, which now moves onto the Legislative Council, was a step towards ’reconciling our past’ and gave a clear statement that Manx society was more inclusive now.

’A society which includes and embraces all people regardless of race, sexual orientation, religion or belief,’ he said. ’We are an island where the LGBT+ community is not only accepted but embraced as a part of who we are as a nation.’

He said that those who were convicted of crimes under the old laws - and their loved ones - should no longer have to carry a burden of guilt.

’All those people affected - the men themselves, their partners, wider family and friends - they deserve an unqualified apology from us.’

He hoped that apology could ’at least start to heal some of the pain caused by past attitudes and decisions’.

Mr Quayle also acknowledged that the convictions from a ’previous era’ still caused shame.

’That is why, at the same time as we propose an automatic pardon for all, this bill allows for individuals to apply to have any convictions which are no longer considered offences to be removed from their criminal record,’ he said

’I hope this will go some way to putting the past behind us and allow those affected to plan for a better future.’

The island now ’celebrates and respects’ same sex relationships, marriage and civil partnerships, while the police force and judiciary strived for inclusion.

But he said the island had to keep working to ’banish all forms of discrimination and injustice from our island’.

Mr Quayle said: ’I hope that today we can move forward with the LGBT+ community.

’This is a small step on that journey, but I hope that it can be seen as a step in the right direction. Because it is only together that we can challenge prejudice and ignorance.

’I am truly sorry for the hurt caused in the past so now let us look together to our future as a modern, progressive and tolerant island.’

His speech was greeted with an emphatic shouts of ’hear, hear’ by the other MHKs.