Gay men prosecuted before homosexuality was decriminalised in the island could receive a pardon as early as next year.
Former Home Affairs Minister Juan Watterson said provision for a gay pardon is to be included in the forthcoming Sexual Offences Bill, which is going out to public consultation soon.
He made the announcement following a pledge by UK Prime Minister Theresa May to implement the so-called Alan Turing law, the wartime code-breaker who was posthumously pardoned for his homosexuality in 2013.
Homosexuality was legalised in the UK in 1967 but the island did not follow suit until as late as 1992.
The Manx Rainbow Association has been campaigning to see gay men prosecuted before the law was changed to be pardoned - and has also called for an official apology from the Chief Constable for actions taken by the force in the past.
Mr Watterson said he had spoken with the Solicitor General to see what mechanism could be used to bring in such a pardon.
He said there was nothing in statute so it would become a Crown function and so primary legislation would need to be passed.
But he explained: ‘Fortunately, the Sexual Offences Bill is quite well advanced and is going out to consultation in the relatively near future. I’ve asked officers to include a provision for a pardon.’
Mr Watterson said subject to the wishes of the next administration, he anticipated that it would go out to public consultation this year and whoever is the next Home Affairs Minister would introduce the Bill, including the provision for a gay pardon, into the branches of Tynwald next year.
Lee Vorster, of the Manx Rainbow Association, said: ‘This is great news. We can’t move forwards without recognising and understanding our recent past.
‘I can’t fathom what those in the LGBT community went through, just because of their sexuality. There was a large number of suicides after conviction.’
Alan Turing, who worked to help break the Nazis’ Enigma code, took his own life in 1954, less than two years after being convicted of gross indecency and undergoing effective chemical castration.
Turing’s family presented a petition to Downing Street, signed by more than half a million people. calling for posthumous pardons of gay men.
The new legislation being brought forward by Westminster will pardon some 49,000 men convicted before decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales in 1967.
Mr Vorster said figures were not available for how many gay men had been arrested and convicted before decriminalistion of homosexuality in the island.