We will never know the full extent of harm caused by the island’s anti-homosexuality laws, says the MHK pushing for an automatic pardon for people convicted under the old regime.

In 1992, laws that made gay sex illegal in the island were finally repealed.

Now, 27 years later, the Sexual Offences and Obscene Publications Bill will pave the way for automatic pardons - but those who were convicted will still have to apply to have the offence actually removed from their records.

Department of Home Affairs member Dr Alex Allinson is guiding the bill through the House of Keys. He said the old laws led to a ’climate of persecution and fear’.

He said: ’Our young people must look incredulously at reports from our island during the eighties where it was an offence for a man to love another man.

’We will never know the harm and damage our legislation caused to those men or their families.’

Dr Allinson added: ’There is no record of the number of people who took their own lives due to the strain and pressure these laws caused, or the countless Manxmen who left our island in disgust never to return.’

Politicians of that time used language ’that has no place in any modern society’, he said, before going on to praise those who campaigned against the injustice, which led to the law change in 1992.

’But the damage had been done and even today people’s lives remain tarnished by a criminal record from a past era.’

When it becomes law, the bill will grant automatically a pardon for those convicted of offences which are no longer illegal.

In addition, people will be able to apply to the government to have such offences removed from their records.

As written, the legislation will ’acknowledge the wrongfulness and discriminatory effect of past convictions for certain historical sexual offences’.

Whether that will be enough to satisfy campaigners who believe the Manx Government and the Isle of Man Constabulary should offer a formal apology for what happened in the past remains to be seen.

During Tuesday’s debate on the bill, Policy and Reform Minister Chris Thomas appeared to acknowledge those concerns.

He welcomed that the bill addressed the ’shocking situation’ created by the former anti-gay sex laws.

’Often when this sort of legislation has come forward, other things have come forward to provide some comfort to those that have endured injustices in the past,’ Mr Thomas added.

’I would hope that at some point during the passage of this bill, government and parliamentarians can provide that degree of comfort at the appropriate point.’

The bill was granted a second reading by MHKs in the House of Keys on Tuesday.

It will undergo detailed scrutiny at the clauses stage, which is likely to be spread over a number of sittings, as the legislation covers a wide range of measures, including updating laws on pornography and prostitution and catering for developments in digital and social media since the current laws were drawn up.

Controversially, the bill also suggests a ban on naming defendants in court cases involving rape and serious sexual assault, unless they are subsequently convicted.