Posts Celebrate Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

The following article is in this month's State Magazine, which is basically an internal magazine for State Department employees. It is really nice to see the magazine report on the ways Gay Pride was observed at some of our missions around the world. I particularly like the photo (you'll have to follow the link and go to page 4 to see it), which is of a huge group of people from our embassy in Manilla holding a sign that reads "Manilla=Diversity.

I like it!

Posts Celebrate Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

To celebrate Gay and Lesbian Pride Month in June, U.S. missions worldwide hosted an array of educational and social programming for foreign audiences and mission staff on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender issues. With the support of members of the Department’s Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies group, missions in seven countries—Albania, Burma, India, Iraq, Korea, Malta and the Philippines—organized more than 20 lectures, roundtable discussions, movies and social events.

These events promoted awareness of the challenges facing LGBT communities worldwide, provided resources for foreign nationals seeking equal rights for their LGBT communities and celebrated Department efforts toward policies responsive to the needs of LGBT employees and their families.

In the Philippines, about 60 American and local staff joined together in a June 30 photograph on Manila’s lush chancery grounds, capping the end of a lighthearted, two-week movie series to educate mission personnel on issues facing LGBT people in different cultures.

The U.S. Embassy in Tirana reached out to Albania’s nascent LGBT movement through lectures by a U.S. anthropologist and roundtable discussions. The U.S. Embassy in Rangoon’s American Center hosted a book exhibition, a showing of the documentary “Before Stonewall” and panel discussions on LGBT rights and AIDS in the workplace.

The U.S. Embassy in Valletta held a public screening of the film “Milk” at the University of Malta and a digital videoconference with a U.S. gay rights activist. The U.S. Embassy in Seoul held a June 24 cocktail event attended by 100 staff including the ambassador and deputy chief of mission. It celebrated Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s decision to extend benefits to partners of LGBT employees.

The U.S. Consulate General in Chennai, India, held a poster show titled “Equal Rights for All,” invited local LGBT leaders to a reception, screened “Milk” and hosted a videoconference for local LGBT activists with the director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s LGBT Project.

Not to be outdone, the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad held a Gay Pride party and fundraiser at the Embassy Association bar, attracting a large turnout of American civilians, U.S. and Coalition military personnel and others. It raised $1,500 for a U.S.-based LGBT charity.