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San Francisco
Chronicle
Envoy quits State
Department over policies
on gay partners
Glenn Kessler,
Washington Post from SFGate.com on the Web, December 7, 2007
Michael Guest, a tall, soft-spoken
man with salt-and-pepper hair, looks every bit the diplomat. At the young
age of 43, at the start of the Bush administration, he was named ambassador to
Romania, and since he returned in 2004 he has trained new ambassadors before
they ship out overseas.
But last month, after 26 years in the Foreign Service, he did something
uncharacteristically undiplomatic.
Guest resigned from the State Department, giving up a career he loved, to
protest rules and regulations that he believes are unfair to the same-sex
partners of Foreign Service officers, giving them fewer benefits than family
pets. He had spent the years since his return from Bucharest trying to win
changes in policies, appealing directly to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice,
but said his proposals were met with indifference and inertia.
"I've felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner, who is my
family, and service to my country," Guest told a crowd of 75 senior State
Department officials, a few steps from Rice's office, at his retirement ceremony
on Nov. 20, according to a transcript of his remarks. "That anyone should
have to make that choice is a stain on the secretary's leadership, and a shame
for this institution and our country."
Within the State Department, gay men and lesbians are widely accepted, in
contrast to the military, where an admission of homosexuality is grounds for
dismissal. But Guest and others say the State Department's regulations
have not kept pace with the department's culture, especially as Foreign Service
officers overseas face increasing dangers.
For instance, same-sex partners -- or unmarried heterosexual partners -- are
refused anti-terrorism security training or foreign-language training and are
not evacuated when eligible family members are ordered to depart. Unlike
spouses, they do not receive diplomatic passports, visas or even use of the
State Department mail system. They also must pay their own way overseas,
get their own medical care and are left to fend for themselves if a partner is
sent to a dangerous post such as Iraq.
Many of these rules, Guest said, could be changed with Rice's signature, which
he said is not a matter of gay rights but of equal treatment.
John Naland, president of the American Foreign Service Association, said a
number of top officials attending the ceremony for Guest acknowledged that these
issues should be addressed. "If everyone is saying we need to do more,
then let's do more," he said.
"The secretary and the State Department do not discriminate on hiring or
promotions," said Pat Kennedy, the undersecretary for management, who also
attended the ceremony for Guest, a longtime colleague. "These are complex
issues. We are committed to giving our personnel the support they need to
get their jobs done."
Aaron Jensen, president of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies, said
the group's leadership met with Rice in May 2005 to argue for a change in
policies, but "we would like more leadership on this issue." He said
surveys indicate that about 350 same-sex partners are affected by the
regulations. There are 12,000 Foreign Service officers, and about 5
percent are gay, he said.
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/12/07/MNJ6TOOE6.DTL
This article appeared on page A - 30 of the San Francisco Chronicle
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