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.”