The Memorandum

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release June 17, 2009
June 17, 2009

MEMORANDUM FOR THE HEADS OF EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS AND AGENCIES

SUBJECT: Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination

Millions of hard-working, dedicated, and patriotic public servants are employed by the Federal Government as part of the civilian workforce, and many of these devoted Americans have same-sex domestic partners. Leading companies in the private sector are free to provide to same-sex domestic partners the same benefits they provide to married people of the opposite sex. Executive departments and agencies, however, may only provide benefits on that basis if they have legal authorization to do so. My Administration is not authorized by Federal law to extend a number of available Federal benefits to the same-sex partners of Federal employees. Within existing law, however, my Administration, in consultation with the Secretary of State, who oversees our Foreign Service employees, and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, who oversees human resource management for our civil service employees, has identified areas in which statutory authority exists to achieve greater equality for the Federal workforce through extension to same-sex domestic partners of benefits currently available to married people of the opposite sex. Extending available benefits will help the Federal Government compete with the private sector to recruit and retain the best and the brightest employees.
I hereby request the following:

Section 1. Extension of Identified Benefits. The Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management shall, in consultation with the Department of Justice, extend the benefits they have respectively identified to qualified same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees where doing so can be achieved and is consistent with Federal law.

Sec. 2. Review of Governmentwide Benefits. The heads of all other executive departments and agencies, in consultation with the Office of Personnel Management, shall conduct a review of the benefits provided by their respective departments and agencies to determine what authority they have to extend such benefits to same-sex domestic partners of Federal employees. The results of this review shall be reported within 90 days to the Director of the Office of Personnel Management, who, in consultation with the Department of Justice, shall recommend to me any additional measures that can be taken, consistent with existing law, to provide benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of Federal Government employees.

Sec 3. Promoting Compliance with Existing Law Requiring Federal Workplaces to be Free of Discrimination Based on Non-Merit Factors. The Office of Personnel Management shall issue guidance within 90 days to all executive departments and agencies regarding compliance with, and implementation of, the civil service laws, rules, and regulations, including 5 U.S.C. 2302(b)(10), which make it unlawful to discriminate against Federal employees or applicants for Federal employment on the basis of factors not related to job performance.

Sec. 4. General Provisions. (a) Nothing in this memorandum shall be construed to impair or otherwise affect:
(i) Authority granted by law or Executive Order to an agency, or the head thereof; or
(ii) Functions of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget relating to budgetary, administrative, or legislative proposals.
(b) This memorandum shall be implemented consistent with applicable law and subject to the availability of appropriations.
(c) This memorandum is not intended to, and does not, create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law or in equity by any party against the United States, its departments, agencies, or entities, its officers, employees, or agents, or any other person.

Sec. 5. Publication. The Director of the Office of Personnel Management is hereby authorized and directed to publish this memorandum in the Federal Register.
BARACK OBAMA
# # #

A Start

So here it is. The announcement we have been waiting for. President Obama is right that it is a historic step and that it is only a step. There is so much more that we need, not the least of which is health insurance for our partners. And we need full marriage. Now. I can't even begin to describe to you how irritated I get with those who complain that the LGBT community has not given him enough time. These are people who have full rights. Who are full citizens. Who have marriages that are recognized no matter where they live. I don't. My church recognizes my marriage but my state and my country, the country I serve, does not. Stop telling me to be patient.

I understand that this is as far as the President can go for now. I am gratified that this appears to give Secretary Clinton the go ahead to release the letter leaked last month. Her letter and the benefits offered in it, go a long way towards making the lives of LGBT officers better. She too is doing all she can.

Now it is up to Congress. Repeal DOMA. Repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." Grant LGBT families marriage rights even if you have to call it something else. Make me a full citizen.

Statement by the President on the Presidential Memorandum on Federal Benefits and Non-Discrimination and Support of the Lieberman-Baldwin Benefits Legislation

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary
___________________________________________________________________________________
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 17, 2009

STATEMENT BY THE PRESIDENT ON THE PRESIDENTIAL MEMORANDUM ON FEDERAL BENEFITS AND NON-DISCRIMINATION, AND SUPPORT OF THE LIEBERMAN-BALDWIN BENEFITS LEGISLATION


In 2007, Michael Guest, the first openly gay Ambassador confirmed by the United States Senate, resigned from the Foreign Service. He loved his career, but he had to leave it in the end -- because he believed that the country he served was failing to implement the principles of equality it espoused abroad. His partner was ineligible for training provided to Ambassadorial spouses; he bore the costs of his partner's transportation to his placements abroad; and his partner did not receive the overseas benefits and allowances given to spouses of Ambassadors.

It is too late to prevent Ambassador Guest from having to make the choice he made, but today I am proud to issue a Presidential Memorandum that will go a long way toward achieving equality for many of the hard-working, dedicated, and patriotic LGBT Americans serving in our Federal Government -- Americans like Ambassador Guest. In consultation with Secretary Clinton, who in her role as Secretary of State oversees our foreign service employees, and Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry, who oversees human resource management for our civil service employees, my Administration has identified a number of areas in which greater equality can be achieved under existing law by extending to the same-sex partners of Federal employees many of the same benefits already available to the spouses of heterosexual Federal employees. I am therefore requesting the Secretary of State and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to extend the benefits they have identified to the same-sex partners of Federal employees where doing so can be achieved consistent with Federal law. I am also requesting the heads of all other executive departments and agencies to conduct a review of the benefits they administer to determine which may legally be extended to same-sex partners.

But this Presidential Memorandum is just a start. Unfortunately, my Administration is not authorized by existing Federal law to provide same-sex couples with the full range of benefits enjoyed by heterosexual married couples. That's why I stand by my long-standing commitment to work with Congress to repeal the so-called Defense of Marriage Act. It's discriminatory, it interferes with States' rights, and it's time we overturned it.

I am also proud to announce my support for an important piece of legislation introduced in both Houses of Congress last month -- the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009. This legislation will extend to the same-sex partners of Federal employees the same benefits already enjoyed by the opposite-sex spouses of Federal employees. The legislation has a number of co-sponsors in both Houses of Congress, but among those many sponsors, I want to recognize one in particular -- Representative Tammy Baldwin, who has been a real leader on this issue, and more broadly on the LGBT struggle for equality. Representative Baldwin, I look forward to working with you to achieve the important objectives set out in this bill as it moves through the legislative process. I also look forward to working with the bill's Senate champions, Senators Lieberman and Collins; I know that they will approach this process with the same spirit of cooperation in pursuit of our shared goals that they bring to all of their work in the Senate.

Extending equal benefits to the same-sex partners of Federal employees is the right thing to do. It is also sound economic policy. Many top employers in the private sector already offer benefits to the same-sex partners of their employees; those companies recognize that offering partner benefits helps them compete for and retain the brightest and most talented employees. The Federal Government is at a disadvantage on that score right now, and change is long overdue.

As Americans, we are all affected when our promises of equality go unfulfilled. Through measures like the Presidential Memorandum I am issuing today and the Domestic Partners Benefits and Obligations Act of 2009, we will advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded and continue to perfect our Union.

Memorandum signed by the President regarding federal benefits and non-discrimination.

Please let it be true

Obama to Extend Benefits to Federal Workers' Partners

By Kerry Eleveld

An Obama administration official has confirmed to The Advocate that President Barack Obama will be signing a presidential memorandum Wednesday to provide benefits to same-sex partners of federal employees.

The signing is scheduled for 5:45 p.m. in the Oval Office, and the president is scheduled to make brief remarks.

Same-sex couples fight for immigration rights

This issue hits LGBT Foreign Service families particularly hard. Like their straight colleagues, many LGBT Foreign Service officers find the loves of their lives while serving their country overseas. And thus begins the difficult path of constantly choosing between their family and serving their country. Most end up serving only overseas, to the detriment of their ability to advance in a career that depends on making connections back in Washington, DC. And most end up, at the end of their careers spent serving the country they love, not being able to retire to the country they love because it means leaving the person they love behind.

Same-sex couples fight for immigration rights

(CNN) -- Jared was forced to choose between a dying father and the love of his life.

Judy Rickard had to quit her job and lose her full pension to be with the one she loved.

Martha McDevitt-Pugh packed up and moved to another country to be with her future spouse.

"Nobody should be in that position. Nobody should have to be an exile," Rickard said.

But all three said their hands were forced by federal immigration laws that don't allow Americans to sponsor their foreign-born same-sex partners for citizenship as a man may do for his wife or a woman for her husband.

"The problem is that I, as a woman, cannot sponsor my female partner for immigration. If I was a man or [my partner] Karin was a man, we wouldn't be having this discussion," said Rickard, 61.

She now travels outside the United States whenever she can to be with her partner, Karin Bogliolo, 68, who had to go back to Britain when her visa expired last year, but it's not the life together they dreamed of.

"I am finally with someone I really want to be with," Bogliolo said. "But we haven't got all the time in the world. We're both getting old."

An estimated 36,000 bi-national couples face the same dilemma each year, according to an advocacy group, Immigration Equality.

The issue will be discussed in Congress on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, after 10 previous attempts to have hearings on the Uniting American Families Act. The bill has 102 co-sponsors in the House and 17 co-sponsors in the Senate, including Judiciary Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council which opposes same sex marriage, has condemned the bill as "yet another attack on marriage at the expense of U.S. taxpayers."

"Although Leahy frames the policy as an anti-discrimination measure, the truth is, this weakens our federal law and chips away at the unique status of marriage," Perkins wrote in a blog on the group's Web site.

"For the federal government to recognize homosexual pairs in any way, shape, or form is a violation of the federal Defense of Marriage Act."

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Massachusetts, who is openly gay, is a co-sponsor of the House version of the bill, but thinks it should be part of a larger immigration reform measure, according to his spokesman, Harry Gural.

Gural said Frank "doubts that it will be taken up in this Congress because of the overwhelming need to deal with other issues like financial regulation, climate change and health care." Gural said Frank supports the bill, but "he's just a pragmatist."

The Senate Judiciary Committee will hear from couples facing deportation and split because of the law. Nineteen other countries, including much of western Europe and Canada, Brazil and Australia among others, allow nationals to sponsor same-sex partners for citizenship.

"We're not asking for anything special," Rickard said. "This is a civil rights issue; it's about basic rights and right now, we are considered second-class citizens. But this bill, if it passed, it would mean quite simply that we could be equal."

There will also be testimony from opponents like Jessica M. Vaughan, director of policy studies for the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that supports a restrictive immigration policy and the deportation of illegal immigrants. She will testify that immigration numbers in the United States are already staggering and the bill would put further stress on the system.

Vaughan said that because the bill would allow sponsoring of "permanent partnerships," it would be difficult to accept applications because there was no documentation for those, the way there are for marriages.

"Without documents, how do you establish the relationship is bona fide?" she said. "And if we are going to make this change, it should be across all federal levels, not just immigration. What about Social Security and Medicare?"

For some same-sex couples, it is enough to start with immigration.

Jared, a Dutch national living in this country illegally who asked to be identified only by his English nickname, fell in love with Melvin Terry in 1978 while traveling in Europe. He had been with Terry for 18 years when he was told by the U.S. government that he had to leave.

"The fact that the government has the right to tell you your relationship is invalid, it's more than frustrating, it's insulting," Terry said.

Then, Jared's dad became ill in the Netherlands.

He was forced to choose whether to go back home to see his father before he died and risk being denied entry back into the United States because he is HIV-positive or of staying with Terry and never seeing his father again.

His father made the choice for him, sending him a letter and underlining "don't even think about coming here." And so for 13 years, Jared, 49, has remained in the United States illegally to be with his 62-year-old partner.

Canadian Chris Waddling, who came to the United States to study and work beginning in 1994 as a research scientist, is one of the lucky ones -- his employer at UCSF has agreed to sponsor him for a green card and permanent residency.

But Waddling says he sees inequality every day at work, in the shape of a female coworker who married a foreign man and could sponsor him.

"Every single time somebody gets a green card based on a spouse's support, it's one more person who has jumped ahead of me in a line I should be in," Waddling said.

Martha McDevitt-Pugh, founder and chairwoman of the advocacy group Love Exiles, gave up waiting for things to change and moved to the Netherlands so she could be with her Dutch partner, Lin McDevitt-Pugh.

The two married in the Netherlands, but Martha McDevitt-Pugh has struggled to find work abroad.

"I realized that what I had in the U.S. I was never going to have that again," she said. "I wanted to have the same choice as everyone else and that was what made me so angry."

The McDevitt-Pughs are hopeful this will be the year things will change, and they encourage all gay people to stand up for the rights they deserve.

"What we have on our side is love," Lin McDevitt-Pugh said. "I know that those in exile are in exile because they love somebody so much that they are willing to leave their country and their families."

Presidential Pride Proclaimation

THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release June 1, 2009
LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2009
- - - - - - -
BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
A PROCLAMATION

Forty years ago, patrons and supporters of the Stonewall Inn in New York City resisted police harassment that had become all too common for members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community. Out of this resistance, the LGBT rights movement in America was born. During LGBT Pride Month, we commemorate the events of June 1969 and commit to achieving equal justice under law for LGBT Americans.

LGBT Americans have made, and continue to make, great and lasting contributions that continue to strengthen the fabric of American society. There are many well-respected LGBT leaders in all professional fields, including the arts and business communities. LGBT Americans also mobilized the Nation to respond to the domestic HIV/AIDS epidemic and have played a vital role in broadening this country's response to the HIV pandemic.

Due in no small part to the determination and dedication of the LGBT rights movement, more LGBT Americans are living their lives openly today than ever before. I am proud to be the first President to appoint openly LGBT candidates to Senate-confirmed positions in the first 100 days of an Administration. These individuals embody the best qualities we seek in public servants, and across my Administration -- in both the White House and the Federal agencies -- openly LGBT employees are doing their jobs with distinction and professionalism.

The LGBT rights movement has achieved great progress, but there is more work to be done. LGBT youth should feel safe to learn without the fear of harassment, and LGBT families and seniors should be allowed to live their lives with dignity and respect.
My Administration has partnered with the LGBT community to advance a wide range of initiatives. At the international level, I have joined efforts at the United Nations to decriminalize homosexuality around the world. Here at home, I continue to support measures to bring the full spectrum of equal rights to LGBT Americans. These measures include enhancing hate crimes laws, supporting civil unions and Federal rights for LGBT couples, outlawing discrimination in the"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy in a way that strengthens our Armed Forces and our national security. We must also commit ourselves to fighting the HIV/AIDS epidemic by both reducing the number of HIV infections and providing care and support services to people living with HIV/AIDS across the United States.

These issues affect not only the LGBT community, but also our entire Nation. As long as the promise of equality for all remains unfulfilled, all Americans are affected. If we can work together to advance the principles upon which our Nation was founded, every American will benefit. During LGBT Pride Month, I call upon the LGBT community, the Congress, and the American people to work together to promote equal rights for all, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2009 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to turn back discrimination and prejudice everywhere it exists.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this
first day of June, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

Secretary's Remarks: In Recognition of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month 2009

Secretary's Remarks: In Recognition of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month 2009

Hillary Rodham Clinton
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
June 1, 2009
________________________________

Forty years ago this month, the gay rights movement began with the Stonewall riots in New York City, as gays and lesbians demanded an end to the persecution they had long endured. Now, after decades of hard work, the fight has grown into a global movement to achieve a world in which all people live free from violence and fear, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

In honor of Gay and Lesbian Pride Month and on behalf of the State Department, I extend our appreciation to the global LGBT community for its courage and determination during the past 40 years, and I offer our support for the significant work that still lies ahead.

At the State Department and throughout the Administration, we are grateful for our lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees in Washington and around the world. They and their families make many sacrifices to serve our nation. Their contributions are vital to our efforts to establish stability, prosperity and peace worldwide.

Human rights are at the heart of those efforts. Gays and lesbians in many parts of the world live under constant threat of arrest, violence, even torture. The persecution of gays and lesbians is a violation of human rights and an affront to human decency, and it must end. As Secretary of State, I will advance a comprehensive human rights agenda that includes the elimination of violence and discrimination against people based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

Though the road to full equality for LGBT Americans is long, the example set by those fighting for equal rights in the United States gives hope to men and women around the world who yearn for a better future for themselves and their loved ones.

This June, let us recommit ourselves to achieving a world in which all people can live in safety and freedom, no matter who they are or whom they love.

Human Rights Campaign Applauds Extension of Benefits to Domestic Partners of Foreign Service Officers

Human Rights Campaign Applauds Extension of Benefits to Domestic Partners of Foreign Service Officers

Multiple reports that State Department will extend travel, training and other benefits to partners.

Washington – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights organization, today lauded State Department plans, reported in multiple media outlets, to extend a number of important benefits to the domestic partners of Foreign Service officers. According to press reports, among the benefits that will be extended to partners of Foreign Service officers are travel to and from overseas posts, shipments of household effects, visas and diplomatic passports, emergency travel to visit ill or injured partners, and evacuation in case of a security emergency or medical necessity. This action does not, however, make health insurance, retirement and numerous other benefits available to domestic partners of Foreign Service officers or any other federal workers.

“This is a remedy that is long overdue. For too many years, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) Foreign Service officers have been forced to choose between serving their country and protecting their families,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese. “We thank President Obama and Secretary Clinton for their leadership in taking this important step and look forward to working with the Administration to extend further protections and benefits to LGBT Americans. In addition, we thank the members of Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) for their tireless efforts within the State Department and other agencies on behalf of LGBT people. We particularly thank former Ambassador Michael Guest, who left the Foreign Service after 26 years to protest these inequalities, for his service to our country and his tremendous leadership in advocating for equality.”

Alongside other organizations, Human Rights Campaign has been advocating for the extension of these important benefits for Foreign Service officers. After the November election, HRC issued its “Blueprint for Positive Change,” a series of more than 70 recommendations to the Obama Administration on how to improve the lives of LGBT people through executive action, which included extending the travel, training and other benefits described in the memorandum. Working with GLIFFA and the Council for Global Equality, HRC lobbied congressional committees to ask State Department officials about the extension of these benefits and to include them in key legislation governing the State Department.

In addition, alongside other Council members, HRC met with State Department representatives earlier this year and emphasized the importance of treating the partners of Foreign Service officers equally. On behalf of all federal workers, HRC continues to advocate for the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act (DPBO), legislation that would extend health, retirement and other benefits to the domestic partners of federal employees; DPBO was reintroduced in the House and Senate last week.

Correcting the Press on the leaked letter

It is all over the media now that the letter leaked to the Advocate is legitimate and means that same-sex partners will take a major step forward in terms of receiving equal treatment with their heterosexual colleagues.

All of the major media outlets have covered it, including:

CNN: Benefits proposed for same-sex partners of U.S. diplomats

NYTimes: Diplomats’ Same-Sex Partners to Get Benefits

and the Washington Post: State Dept. Plan Would Extend Benefits to Same Sex Partners

All of this coverage is excellent and I sincerely hope that the letter is released officially and that the promises made in this letter are kept.

But all of these reports make several errors.

First, these benefits are for all declared domestic partners and their children. Same-sex or opposite-sex. The letter clearly states this.

Second, this is NOT full equality. It does address everything that the Secretary can do on her own. But it does not address health insurance, and issue of major concern, not pensions, just to name two issues. While this would be a major step forward, there is still much work to be done. But most of that work will now be in the hands of OPM and Congress. The Secretary, if she implements these measures, will have kept faith with those in the LGBT community who have always supported her.

Finally, there is a major error in who released the letter. No member of the GLIFAA board received this letter or any memo before it appeared in the press. No member of the GLIFAA board even saw this letter before it appeared in the Advocate. Those claims, started by the Associated Press and picked up by most major media, are simply false.

I don't know who leaked it nor what their intentions were. I hope they were good, but you can never really be certain. I hope there is no backlash. And mostly, I hope they implement these changes and finally begin to address the inequities facing LGBT Foreign Service Families who are dedicating their lives to the service of our country.

It does make me even prouder to serve.

The Advocate: Clinton Ready For Equal Treatment at State?

This is the first I have seen of this. All I can say is Kerry clearly has better sources in the Department than I do! And if it is true, wow! I'm an employee for life!

Clinton Ready For Equal Treatment at State?

By Kerry Eleveld

The Advocate has obtained a draft of a letter from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to employees of the State Department that details her intentions to extend certain benefits to same-sex partners of foreign service officers posted abroad.

“Historically, domestic partners of Foreign Service members have not been provided the same training, benefits, allowances, and protections that other family members receive. These inequities are unfair and must end. Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our Posts abroad,” says the letter.

The letter explains that the department will be “exercising its inherent authority to change its regulations in the Foreign Affairs Manual and Department of State Standardized Regulations” in order to allow domestic partners of foreign service personnel to qualify as family members. “Where appropriate, this extension of benefits and allowances will apply to the children of domestic partners as well.”

Providing these benefits to all employees, notes the letter, will help the department “attract and retain personnel in a competitive environment where domestic partner benefits and allowances are increasingly the norm for world-class employers. At bottom, the Department will provide these benefits for both opposite-sex and same-sex domestic partners because it is the right thing to do.”

The letter appears to be the culmination of Secretary Clinton's work with LGBT employee groups at the State Department. A source familiar with the situation who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the letter was drafted by senior officials at the department and represents the Secretary’s thinking on the issue. The letter currently awaits final approval from senior government lawyers.

The draft is consistent with statements made this week by California Congressman Howard Berman that Secretary Clinton is committed to equalizing the treatment of gay employees of the State Department and that he anticipated an announcement on the matter soon.

Full text of the letter is below:

DRAFT INTERNAL RELEASE
For Review

Today, I am pleased to announce that the Department of State will be extending a number of benefits and allowances to domestic partners of members of the Foreign Service assigned abroad.

While a career in the Foreign Service is rewarding, the demands to serve our country both at home and abroad also require great sacrifice by our Foreign Service personnel and their families as well. Family members often must uproot their lives, endure hardship conditions, and put their own careers on hold. Like all families, our Foreign Service families come in different configurations; all are part of the common fabric of our Post communities abroad.

Historically, domestic partners of Foreign Service members have not been provided the same training, benefits, allowances, and protections that other family members receive. These inequities are unfair and must end. Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our Posts abroad. It will also help the Department attract and retain personnel in a competitive environment where domestic partner benefits and allowances are increasingly the norm for world-class employers. At bottom, the Department will provide these benefits for both opposite-sex and same-sex domestic partners because it is the right thing to do.

The Department will be exercising its inherent authority to change its regulations in the Foreign Affairs Manual and Department of State Standardized Regulations to allow the domestic partners of Department Foreign Service personnel to qualify as family members for a variety of benefits and allowances. Where appropriate, this extension of benefits and allowances will apply to the children of domestic partners as well. To qualify for these benefits and allowances, an employee must file an affidavit identifying his or her domestic partner and certifying to certain eligibility requirements that will be set forth in the FAM.

The Department of State intends to provide the following additional benefits and allowances for declared domestic partners of eligible employees serving overseas:

· Diplomatic passports,
· Inclusion on employee travel orders to and from posts abroad,
· Shipment of household effects,
· Inclusion in family size calculations for the purpose of making housing allocations,
· Family member preference for employment at posts abroad,
· Use of medical facilities at posts abroad,
· Medical evacuation from posts abroad,
· Emergency travel for the partners to visit gravely ill or injured employees,
· Inclusion as family members for emergency evacuation from posts abroad,
· Subsistence payments related to emergency evacuation from posts abroad,
· Inclusion in calculations of payments of overseas differentials and allowances (e.g., payment for quarters, cost of living, and other allowances),
· Representation expenses, and;
· Training at the Foreign Service Institute.

The Department also will work with our inter-agency partners and host country governments to provide domestic partners with diplomatic visas, appropriate diplomatic and consular privileges and immunities, and authorization to work in the local economy abroad.

We look forward to implementing these changes.

The Advocate: Congressman: White House LGBT Announcements Imminent

Congressman: White House LGBT Announcements Imminent
By Kerry Eleveld

California representative Howard Berman predicted in an interview Thursday that the White House would be presenting new information regarding LGBT policies sometime before annual pride celebrations in June.

“I think the White House is preparing to make an announcement on a number of issues,” he said, declining to go into detail. “I’m predicting here, not informing, that by the Stonewall anniversary we will have a very clear picture of what the administration is doing.”

Congressman Berman, who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee, foreshadowed the announcements during an interview about the Foreign Affairs authorization bill that passed out of his committee Wednesday and will provide new diplomatic and development resources for the State Department.

While the bill included many positive provisions to help address LGBT issues abroad, one section that was struck from the legislation would have ended the practice of excluding domestic partners of foreign service officers from benefits routinely provided to spouses and children, such as access to emergency evacuation support, training and language classes, health care and regional medical units, employment opportunities, consulate services, and visa and relocation support.

Berman said he agreed to remove that section of the bill based on his understanding that both the Obama administration and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were committed to equalizing treatment for same-sex partners in the very near future. He suggested that declaration might be part of a greater package of policy pronouncements from the White House.

“My expectation with respect to the issues that were originally part of my bill, is that the State Department and the secretary will provide the kinds of benefits that I sought,” he said, adding that he was committed to ending discrimination against gay and lesbian foreign service officers. “If I’m wrong, which I don’t think I am, we still have a ways to go on this bill and we can reverse course.”

Berman referenced a quote from Michael Guest, a gay ambassador who finally resigned in 2007 over the State Department’s discriminatory practices, in which Guest said, “Under current practices, we’re kinder to family pets of foreign service officers than we are to gay partners.” That’s true, Berman said, noting that the country pays for the transportation costs of pets to and from foreign posts and provides evacuation services for pets.

What did make the bill were a series of policies that will empower the State Department to: track violence and discrimination against LGBT people that would be deemed illegal in the United States; encourage and persuade governments of other countries to repeal or reform any laws that criminalize homosexuality or restrict fundamental freedoms of gay individuals or organizations; include in annual human rights reports documentation of violence or discrimination against people based on their perceived sexual orientation or gender identity.

Representative Berman said some Republican congressmen like Chris Smith and Mike Pence opposed those inclusions in the bill.

“They were torn and conflicted, almost anguished in the debate,” said Berman, “because I don’t think they can or do justify violence against people because of their sexual orientation and I think they no longer seek to defend criminalization of homosexual conduct…. And yet, [those protections are] what they sought to eliminate with their amendments.”

Berman said he was hopeful the bill would reach the House floor for consideration by early June.

Berman: Gay US diplomats to get equal benefits

Personally, I think this is a horrible idea. Regardless of whether or not you can trust that the Secretary will follow through (and I do believe she wants to), by removing it from the legislation, you make it that much easier for a future Secretary to roll back our rights.

Gay US diplomats to get equal benefits: lawmaker

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has promised to provide equal benefits to partners of homosexual US diplomats stationed overseas, a congressman said Wednesday.

Howard Berman, head of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, had sought to require the State Department to offer benefits such as medical care, transport between postings and security training to partners regardless of sexual orientation.

Berman, in a hearing on funding for the Foreign Service, said he would drop his legislative bid as "it is my expectation, based on very recent conversations, that the Secretary of State will move forward with implementing all of the benefits provided in that provision in the very near future."

The congressman invited to the hearing Michael Guest, the former US ambassador to Romania who in 2007 left the Foreign Service, citing unfair treatment of his partner.

"For 26 years he served our country with distinction and was sadly forced to leave the Foreign Service when he could no longer accept the second-class status accorded his lifetime partner," said Berman, a Democrat from California.

"But I am heartened that soon no more of our best and brightest will be forced to choose between family and country," he said.

The ranking Republican member on the committee, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, has supported the effort.

Ros-Lehtinen signed a letter to Clinton sent in February by Tammy Baldwin, a Democrat from Wisconsin who is openly lesbian, warning the State Department risked losing qualified diplomats unless it provided equality to gay partners.

But another Republican lawmaker criticized a separate part of the bill aimed at promoting gay rights.

The funding bill calls on US diplomats to encourage other countries to revise laws that restrict consensual homosexual relations or limit the freedoms of gay people and groups.

Christopher Smith, a Republican from New Jersey, charged that the bill could force US diplomats to promote policies that go against their religious beliefs.

"Does that make it permissive -- or mandatory -- that they be advocates for the homosexual agenda?" Smith asked.

Under President Barack Obama, the United States has switched gears from the previous George W. Bush administration by supporting a United Nations resolution calling for the global decriminalization of homosexuality.

Homosexuality is punishable by death in seven countries -- Iran, Mauritania, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen.

Digger comments:
And is Christopher Smith saying that he thinks it is acceptable to punish gays with death? It is against his religious beliefs to argue against KILLING gays? And for the record, Christopher Smith spends a lot of time forcing folks in this building to push his religious agenda regardless of their religious beliefs. I believe that makes him a hypocrite.

Right Wing Watch covered the issue, and the Right's response, here.

Same-Sex Partner Benefits on the Way for American Diplomats (maybe)

From UN Dispatch

Same-Sex Partner Benefits on the Way for American Diplomats

Congress has inserted a provision into the State Department authorization budget that would require the State Department to confer the same benefits to same-sex partners as it does to married couples.

Congressman Howard Berman, Chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, included the provision in the Foreign Relations Authorization Act for Fiscal Years 2010 and 2011 (H.R. 2410) to "end the long-standing practice of excluding the committed partners of Foreign Service officers from the benefits routinely provided to the spouses and children of officers serving abroad." The provision now must make its way through the budget process, including the conference committee where many-a-well intentioned proposal hits the chopping block. But in this case, it would be hard to imagine that the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which is lead by Chairman John Kerry and the moderate republic ranking member Richard Lugar, would do anything to strip out this provision.

This would be progress. For too long, gay and lesbian diplomats have had to chose between their families and their service. "I'm happy that efforts to redress these discriminatory policies are being undertaken," emails Michael Guest a former Foreign Service officer currently affiliated with the Center for Global Equality. "This is all about ensuring the safety, effectiveness and equal workplace conditions for those who serve our country abroad, and for the families who accompany them on those assignments." Amen!

Rip Off The Bandaid

Eugene Robinson in today's Washington Post asks the fair and timely question, where is our "fierce advocate for equality" for the LGBT community? A lot of folks, me included, are wondering the same thing.

MIA On Gay Marriage
By Eugene Robinson

Believe it or not, often I can see the other side of an argument. I know that tough gun control laws save lives and make our communities safer, for example, but I also see clarity in the Second Amendment. I support affirmative action, but I realize that providing opportunity to some worthy individuals can mean denying opportunity to others. Thinking about some issues involves discerning among subtly graded shades of gray.

On some issues, though, I really don't see anything but black and white. Among them is the "question" of granting full equal rights to gay and lesbian Americans, which really isn't a question at all. It's a long-overdue imperative, one that the nation is finally beginning to acknowledge.

Before his inauguration, President Obama called himself a "fierce advocate of equality for gay and lesbian Americans." Now, with the same-sex marriage issue percolating in state after state and with the Pentagon's "don't ask, don't tell" policy ripe for repeal, it's time for Obama to put some of his political capital where his rhetoric is.

On Wednesday, Maine became the fifth state to legalize gay marriage; similar legislation in New Hampshire has been sent to the governor. Politicians in Washington who want to avoid what they see as a dangerous controversy have a convenient escape: They can say that the marriage issue should be left to the states and that the question of whether a legal gay marriage in one state should be recognized everywhere has already been addressed by Congress and ultimately will be settled by the courts.

But that's a dodge, not a stance. It certainly can't be confused with leadership.

Favoring "civil unions" that accord all the rights and benefits of marriage -- but that withhold the word marriage, and with it, I guess, society's approval -- amounts to another dodge. I'm concerned here with the way the law sees the relationship, not the way any particular church or religious leader sees it; that's for worshipers, clergy and the Almighty to work out. Marriage is not just a sacrament but also a contract, and the contractual aspect is a matter of statute, not scripture.

Obama took the "civil unions" route during last year's campaign and has stuck with it. While I see the political calculation -- that was basically the position of all the major Democratic candidates -- I never understood the logic. If semantics are the only difference between a civil union and a marriage, why go to the trouble of drawing a distinction? If there are genuine differences that the law should recognize, what are they?

It seems to me that equality means equality, and either you're for it or you're not. I believe gay marriage should be legal, and it's hard for me to imagine how any "fierce advocate of equality" could think otherwise.

Obama sensibly advocates the repeal of "don't ask, don't tell." He should press the case by publicly reminding opponents of letting gays serve openly in the military that their arguments -- it would hurt morale, damage cohesion and readiness, discourage reenlistment -- are often the same, almost word for word, as the arguments made 60 years ago against racial integration in the armed forces. It was bigotry then, and it's bigotry now.

Obama should also make the obvious case that forcibly discharging capable, fully trained servicemen and servicewomen for being gay, at a time when our overstretched military is fighting two big wars, can only be described as insane.

What the president shouldn't do is stay away from the marriage debate on the grounds that it's not a matter for the federal government. For one thing, he's on record as favoring repeal of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act -- a law that blocked federal recognition of same-sex marriages and relieved states of any obligation to recognize out-of-state gay marriages.

Does Obama's stance in favor of repeal mean that he believes the federal government should recognize same-sex marriages? Does he also believe that, say, the state of Alabama should recognize a gay marriage performed in Iowa? If so, what is the practical difference between this position and just saying in plain language that gay marriages ought to be legal and recognized in all 50 states?

I'm not being unrealistic. I know that public acceptance of homosexuality in this country is still far from universal. But attitudes have changed dramatically -- more than enough for a popular, progressive president to speak loudly and clearly about a matter of fundamental human and civil rights.

Digger comments:
Just this past week, the same-sex spouse of a person serving overseas was initially denied tamaflu, even though folks at post were showing symptoms and so EVERYONE ELSE at the mission was given tamaflu as a precaution. Another person's partner was denied a flu vaccine earlier in the season, even though post historically has ordered more doses than needed and had to throw them away! Once again, this demonstrates the second-class status Foreign Service members of household are forced to endure.

Some of this the Secretary can fix in the stroke of a pen, and she needs to do it sooner rather than later.

But much of it could be handled by our "fierce advocate." My partner had the right idea this morning. Instead of doing things piecemeal, President Obama needs to rip off the bandaid. He needs to do it all at once. Get rid of Don't Ask Don't Tell and DOMA and push for federal marriage all at once. Realistically, our enemies are only going to be able to fight back on one thing effectively, and that will be federal marriage. Then he can offer the compromise of federal civil unions. While that will still violate my freedom of religion (as a member of a mainstream prtestant denomination that recognizes same-sex marriage...so the government is in the business of decided which of the marriages my church performs it will recognize), at least it will mean I can visit my spouse in the hospital and if god forbid she died, not have to pay inheritance tax on my own propert.

Rip off the bandaid, Mr. President. There is never going to be a better time.

A State Department couple and the debate over federal benefits for same-sex partners of employees

From Government Executive:

FEATURES Foreign & Domestic
By Alyssa Rosenberg

A State Department couple and the debate over federal benefits for same-sex partners of employees.

Five years ago this March, Michelle Schohn joined the Foreign Service.

Diplomacy wasn't her initial field of choice; she already had a job as an archaeologist. But there was one very significant factor influencing her decision to change careers. Schohn's partner, Mary Glantz, already was a member of the Foreign Service. And when Glantz was posted overseas, things got complicated. The State Department classifies the spouses of gay and lesbian employees as "members of household," according them different benefits than heterosexual couples who are legally married.

Members of household are not eligible to participate in special early-round applications for jobs at embassies, as heterosexual spouses can. They cannot be covered by their partners' health insurance, so they are not guaranteed coverage when they go overseas. They do not have access to diplomatic posts' medical facilities. And if posts have to be evacuated, members of household are not guaranteed evacuation pay or subsidies to cover expenses.

"I was in a career I liked very much," says Schohn, now president of the organization Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies. But she was faced with the choice of either going overseas unemployed with her partner and without diplomatic protections, or quitting her job and joining the Foreign Service so she and Glantz could get equal treatment. "I didn't like either option," Schohn says.

She may be one of the few people ever to decide to join the federal government because of the way its employment policies distinguish between straight and gay couples. Often, the policies have the opposite effect. At a September 2008 Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee hearing, Frank A. Hartigan, a deputy regional director for the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, said if he were starting out in the job market again, he would look outside government for an employer that would allow him to add his partner to his health insurance. Soon, though, Schohn, Hartigan and thousands of other federal employees might not have to make such a choice.

A combination of events - including two court orders from California federal judges, the appointment of an Office of Personnel Management director with a long history of working to change policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees, and the inauguration of a president who has voiced support for expanding gay rights - have created a climate favorable to enacting domestic partner benefits for federal employees.

Beyond 'Chuck and Larry'

Every year since 1997, legislation called the Domestic Partner Benefits and Obligations Act has been introduced in Congress.

It would grant the domestic partners and legally married spouses of gay and lesbian federal employees access to benefits ranging from access to health insurance through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to full participation in relocation programs that are currently available only to married couples. The bill also would require same-sex couples to abide by the rules governing married couples, including nepotism regulations.

Despite the bill's long history, it kicked around from committee to committee without any forward momentum until last year, when Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., who introduced the latest iteration in December 2007, held the first hearing on the legislation.

It was a largely tame event, without much in the way of partisan bickering or attempts to score points on either side of the culture war. The lone Republican attendee, Maine Sen. Susan M. Collins, was there to support the bill, and she even suggested broadening it to include heterosexual couples who are not married but live together in committed relationships.

There was little disagreement among the witnesses, four out of five of whom testified in support of the bill. The lone dissent came from OPM.

Howard C. Weizmann, then the deputy director of the agency in the waning months of the Bush administration, said OPM opposed the legislation on the grounds that it would be extremely difficult to determine the validity of relationships between same-sex couples in the absence of standard documentation, such as a marriage license. The risk that couples would commit fraud to get access to federal benefits is "not farfetched," Weizmann said, pointing to I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a movie about two New York firefighters who fake a domestic partnership to protect their pension benefits.

His choice of examples sparked outrage from gay and lesbian federal government employees.

"Weizmann hadn't done his homework," says Leonard Hirsch, president of Federal GLOBE, the governmentwide affinity group for gay and lesbian employees. "It was a total embarrassment to the United States. That won't happen again."

The Berry Effect

Hirsch's prediction that OPM's reaction to the bill is likely to change is probably on the mark, although it's hard to tell officially, because OPM declined requests to comment for this article. What's certainly true is the next time the agency's representatives come before Congress to discuss the legislation, they will be looking at it from a different perspective.

The handover of the White House from Republicans to Democrats accounts for part of the change. In particular, President Obama's choice for OPM director, John Berry, will bring a new set of experiences and convictions to workforce policy.

Berry, who was confirmed by unanimous consent of the Senate in early April, is the first openly gay agency head in the executive branch. His service as assistant secretary for policy, management and budget at the Interior Department during the Clinton administration provides a blueprint for how he might address issues facing gay and lesbian employees. At Interior, Berry instituted a full review of policies affecting gay workers, resulting in:

* Establishment of a grievance procedure for employees who say they experienced sexual-orientation discrimination.
* Expansion of relocation benefits and counseling services for domestic partners of Interior employees.
* Creation of a liaison to gay and lesbian employees.
* Elimination of a requirement that gay and lesbian applicants for law enforcement positions at the National Park Service undergo background checks.

Berry said at his confirmation hearing that he couldn't comment on specific issues until he was in office, but his expected support for the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act could give the legislation momentum when it is reintroduced in this session of Congress. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., was planning to introduce the bill this spring in the House and Lieberman and Collins are set to push it in the Senate.

External circumstances may encourage the legislators to move quickly. In January and February, two federal judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in California issued separate orders directing the Administrative Office of the United States Courts to process benefits applications for the same-sex partners of two court employees, and to continue to process such applications on a routine basis. OPM has told the office that the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program is not set up to deal with such applications.

One of the judges has retained jurisdiction over his employee's benefits, and said he will issue additional orders to force the processing of benefits forms, setting up a potential clash between the executive and the judiciary branches.
The quickest way to avert that clash, Hirsch says, would be to pass the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act. Then OPM could discuss adding domestic partners with FEHBP providers when it makes its annual round of changes to the program during discussions that take place in the spring and summer.

"It's just simply going through the law and writing the regulations," Hirsch says. "That is normal procedure. It would take six months or so, but hopefully it would immediately impact internally to agencies their understanding of their obligations to [lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered] employees."

Model Programs

But agencies and employee groups aren't simply waiting for Congress and the White House to act. Last year, the National Treasury Employees Union and FDIC reached an agreement to create a domestic partnership benefits program at the agency. FDIC is one of only a few agencies where federal unions negotiate pay and benefits issues, rather than simply bargain over working conditions. That created an opportunity for NTEU to push for a program that will allow gay and lesbian FDIC employees to enroll their partners in health, dental, vision and life insurance programs, and to include domestic partners and their children fully in relocation benefits programs.

NTEU president Colleen Kelley credits FDIC chairwoman Sheila Bair, a Republican appointee, with supporting the program, which the labor leader says provides a model for the rest of federal government.

"That's what agencies should follow," she says. "We're in ongoing discussions with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We're pursuing it in every avenue we have."
Other agencies are going through processes similar to the one Berry conducted at Interior in the 1990s. At the State Department, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton met with Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies shortly after she took office and promised a review of the policies that affect them and their partners. In February, gay newsmagazine The Advocate reported that Clinton told town hall participants that the review was "on a fast timeline," suggesting that she might change State policy even before Congress acts.

Hirsch says Attorney General Eric Holder is conducting a similar review at the Justice Department. Other agencies could follow suit, indicating they would be ready to implement new benefits quickly if the domestic partnership legislation passes Congress.

Broader Effects

Extending federal benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian employees would make life easier for them. But would such a policy change have broader effects, such as making the government a more attractive place to work, both to potential applicants and current employees?

At Lieberman's hearing last fall, Weizmann said that in the private sector, less than 1 percent of employees at companies that offer domestic partnership benefits actually sign up for them. With such low participation rates, he said, it was a far leap to suggest that implementing such benefits would have any impact on recruitment or retention.

A 2008 report by the Williams Institute at the University of California Los Angeles School of Law predicted that 14,436 additional same-sex partners and children of federal employees would sign up for health benefits if the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act passed, increasing benefits spending by $60.4 million annually. The Congressional Budget Office put the price tag at $670 million over 10 years.

But Yvette C. Burton, business development executive at IBM, testified at Lieberman's hearing that domestic partnership benefits weren't simply a way to recruit and retain gay and lesbian employees.

"Like IBM, many companies report that implementation of domestic partnership benefits help to attract and retain crucial talent segments of non- LGBT employees," she said. "These particular candidates have reported that the existence of domestic partnership benefit policies like that at IBM demonstrate that the company truly values and respects all employees, that they protect all employees. . . . This trend is especially prevalent among younger candidates of the workforce, a segment crucial to the future demographics of any sector."

In the short term, the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act would have a big effect on federal employees like Michelle Schohn and Mary Glantz, who continually reassess their decision to stay in government.

"We make decisions on a tour-by-tour basis if we're going to stay in the department," Schohn says. "And we will stay in the department if the department allows us to stay together."

100 Days In, Still No Place At The Table

I have a confession. This blog suffers when I am thinking of leaving the Department and going back to archaeology. And I think of leaving the Department mostly when I am frustrated by the excruciatingly slow progress the Department makes in terms of addressing the inequities facing LGBT Foreign Service families.

This is made worse, not better, by having felt there was hope for change.

On Friday, the Secretary marked her 100th day with the Foreign Affairs Day celebration and Memorial commemoration. Now I know that the 100 days mantra is just a media creation. I get that. But really, it is a means to look at where priorities are in any administration. What do you care about enough to fix immediately.

Honestly, naively, I thought and hoped that the Secretary cared enough about her LGBT employees to do something quickly. We were on the "fast track," she said. She was presented with a letter signed by 2,200 of the foreign affairs community and with documents outlining what steps she could take with a mere stroke of the pen. Steps that weren't taken in the past only because a lack of political will, not because the steps were all that difficult. Recommendations for what she could do were described as being "on her desk" in late March. She has been such a long-time friend to the LGBT community that I really believed that change was imminent. That we had seen the last summer transfer season where gay and lesbian employees would be forced to pay to bring their partner to post so that the partner could live the life of second-class citizenship that is the Member of Household's lot. That the days of the Department paying for the shipment of a pet but not the travel of a partner were over.

But they are not.

One hundred days in and we still do not have a place at the table. One hundred days in and we are still, despite the meetings, the good words, the promise that she knew this was an issue of workplace fairness, second-class employees with second-class spouses. We still receive less pay for the same work than do our heterosexual colleagues, 63% of whom said in a recent survey that they support equal rights for same-sex spouses.

I am still waiting. We are still waiting. We are hoping our service will soon be as valued as our heterosexual colleagues' service. And in the meantime, I, and perhaps the other 700 or so people who have spouses who are only Members of Household and not eligible family members, are left contemplating how long they can remain in a job that forces them to choose their career over their family. You can read about the frustration facing LGBT families in "Speaking Out" in this month's issue of the Foreign Service Journal.

I hope we don't have to wait much longer.

Foreign Affairs Day and Plaque Ceremony

The AFSA Memorial Plaque Ceremony is held on Foreign Affairs Day to honor Foreign Service personnel who have lost their lives while serving their country overseas in the line of duty or under heroic or other inspirational circumstances. This year, the ceremony will be held on Friday, May 1 at 10:25 a.m., in the C St. lobby of the State Department in front of the west plaque.

Secretary Hillary Clinton is scheduled to preside over this year's ceremony. She will read a message from President Obama and pay her respects to the families of the employees whose names will be added to the plaque, bringing the total to 231.

BRIAN ADKINS
Brian Adkins was a first-tour State Department Foreign Service Officer who was killed on January 31, 2009 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia where he was serving as a consular officer at the U.S. Embassy. Brian was a graduate of George Washington University, where he completed both his undergraduate and graduate studies. He graduated summa cum laude from the Elliott School of International Affairs in 2005. He joined the State Department after receiving his masters degree in 2007 and was assigned to Ethiopia. Mr. Adkins would have turned 26 on Feb. 2, 2009, the day that friends received word of his death. He was a native of Columbus, Ohio and is survived by his parents, John and Christine Adkins, his sister Tiffany and his brother Michael, as well as his maternal and paternal grandparents.

FELIX RUSSEL ENGDAHL
Felix Russell Engdahl (July 28, 1907-May 14, 1942), better known during his life as Russ Engdahl, joined the Foreign Service on December 16, 1930. After serving as Vice Consul in Port-au-Prince and Calcutta, Engdahl was assigned to Shanghai in October 1935. He was promoted to Consul and, in late 1941, traveled to Hong Kong on courier duty. He was captured by the Japanese not long after the fall of Hong Kong in late December 1941, along with several other members of the Foreign Service and sent to the Stanley Internment Camp. Engdahl died in the camp on May 14, 1942, a few months before all Americans in the camp were repatriated. His death was accidental, caused by a fall down some stairs while in the prison.

THOMAS W. WALDRON
Thomas Waldron (May 21, 1814-September 8, 1844) was appointed as the first U.S. Consul to Hong Kong on July 21, 1843. This was a recess appointment and he was later confirmed by the Senate on May 17, 1844. He arrived in Hong Kong in early February 1844. He traveled to Macau on an official visit in September 1844 where he died of cholera. He is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau.

EDMUND ROBERTS
Edmund Roberts (July 29, 1784-June 12, 1836) was appointed as Special Agent on January 26, 1832. President Jackson tasked him to negotiate commercial treaties with Muscat, Siam and Cochin China. Later in 1832, he was also asked to negotiate a treaty with Japan. In 1832, Roberts negotiated treaties between the United States and Siam and Muscat. In March 1835, Roberts left the United States on a mission to Cochin China, Siam and Japan. While in Siam, Roberts contracted dysentery and died in Macau on his way to Japan. He is buried in the Old Protestant Cemetery in Macau.

The solemn ceremony offers us an opportunity to remember and honor our fallen colleagues who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country, and to remind us of the extremely dangerous and difficult conditions that our Foreign Service personnel face today in many parts of the world. Our deepest sympathies and heartfelt gratitude go out to all their loved ones.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will give the keynote address in the Dean Acheson Auditorium to the over 500 retirees who will be attending this year's Foreign Affairs Day, prior to the Plaque Ceremony.

Following the conclusion of Foreign Affairs Day at 3:00 p.m., everyone is invited to attend AFSAs FAD Reception, from 3-5 p.m. at the newly renovated AFSA headquarters, 2101 E Street NW. The AFSA Scholarship winners will be announced during the reception

The Advocate: Congressional Leaders Mull Partial DOMA Repeal

This would certainly make things easier for LGBT Foreign Service families.

Congressional Leaders Mull Partial DOMA Repeal

Some Congressional members are considering repealing part of the Defense of Marriage Act, allowing the federal government to recognize same-sex marriages.

By Kerry Eleveld

Discussions around repealing a portion of the Defense of Marriage Act that prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages have heated up in the wake of recent legal challenges filed and the addition of two new states legalizing same-sex marriage.

Legislative aides familiar with the discussions say a handful of congressional leaders have been hashing out the details of the legislation, which would accomplish two goals: repeal section 3 of DOMA as it relates to the federal government's ability to confer some 1,100 federal benefits on same-sex partners; and provide a way for same-sex couples living in states that do not allow them to marry legally to access the same federal benefits afforded to heterosexual spouses.

The most immediate benefits of passing such a bill would go to legally married gay couples -- those who have married or will marry in Connecticut or Massachusetts, those who married in California while it was legal (pending the state supreme court decision over the validity of those marriages), and those soon to marry in Iowa and Vermont. Same-sex couples in New York, which recognizes legal marriages performed outside of the state, would also be among the first beneficiaries.

But Christopher Anders, senior legislative counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union, said legislators are also intent on making federal benefits available to same-sex couples living outside those six states. "People are coalescing around the idea of a 50-state solution by recognizing unions that are recognized in at least one state,” he said. “There’s a growing consensus around that."

By all accounts, the bill will not disrupt section 2 of DOMA, which gives individual states the ability to determine what type of unions they deem legal. "It still protects federalism -- states are still able to make their own decision about what state benefits to offer," Anders added.

According to sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity, legislators involved in the planning include senators Christopher Dodd, Russ Feingold, and Chuck Schumer, and representatives Tammy Baldwin, Barney Frank, Jerrold Nadler, and Jared Polis.

Legislators declined to discuss specifics due to the fact that they are trying to reconcile different approaches in order to introduce matching bills in the House and the Senate.

"With the landscape changing so quickly, we want to make sure congressional leaders, advocates, and litigators are all in the same place," said Amy Rutkin, Representative Nadler's chief of staff.

The basic question surrounding the bill is which same-sex unions to recognize and how to make those unions portable in a way that will allow the federal government to provide benefits to gay partners regardless of whether they live in Alabama or Massachusetts.

According to those familiar with the discussions, some have advocated for only recognizing marriages while others have shown an interest in including civil unions and strong domestic partnerships too.

"The idea is to recognize a relationship or marriage that is recognized by a state," Anders explained. So if a couple is legally recognized in any state, he added, "you would be entitled to the federal benefits and protections and liabilities of marriage."

But the Human Rights Campaign’s Joe Solmonese said he is less concerned about the exact form the legislation takes at the moment than he is in getting "something on the burner."

"I think the House and Senate version wouldn't have to be one in the same, there can be differences," he said. "But once you get legislation introduced in both, you've got the educational vehicle and the organizing principle for the community to really get to work on."

Sources declined to discuss the exact timing of when such a bill might be introduced, but they generally agreed it would be before the end of the year and probably within the next several months.

While President Obama supports full repeal of DOMA, Solmonese said it was difficult to gauge whether this legislation would be prioritized by the White House because the Administration has not provided such information to the HRC.

"We have had weekly conversations with the White House about the agenda for our community, but we haven't gotten the priority list from the White House," he said.

Anders explained that the two key disparate groups legislators are keeping in mind are those couples who are the most mobile and those who are the least. For instance, they want to cover couples who live in Massachusetts or Iowa and marry but then choose to move to another state for a job or to care for a family member or to retire.

"But there are also lots of people who are living in the state they were born in," Anders said, "and it doesn't seem that people should be locked out of federal protections simply because they can't move and may not have the resources or mobility to do so."

Another option some have suggested is creating a set of criteria, or a federal trigger, that would qualify a couple for federal benefits regardless of whether they are legally unioned in any particular state. While this would provide a way to debate federal benefits outside of the emotion surrounding marriage, Anders said the option has not been under serious consideration and was losing steam fast now that there is a greater proliferation of states extending full marriage rights to same-sex couples, which essentially makes marriage regionally accessible to more people.

The Government Accountability Office reported in 2004 that a total of 1,138 federal benefits are associated with marital status; people generally cite issues like Social Security survivor benefits, federal health benefits, and equal tax treatment as major concerns. A same-sex partner cannot, for instance, collect the Social Security payments of a deceased partner. Partners of federal employees are not eligible for inclusion on their health insurance. In terms of taxation, same-sex partners cannot file joint tax returns; insurance benefits offered to same-sex partners by employers is taxed as extra income rather than being deducted from pre-tax dollars; and while married spouses can transfer an unlimited amount of money to each other without being taxed, anyone else is limited to transfers of up to $12,000 annually.

Still Waiting

By my count, President Obama's 100th day is about April 30, and Secretary Clinton's will be soon after. LGBT Foreign Service families were promised that their issues would be "fast tracked" on several occassions since then.

We are still waiting.

Summer transfer season is upon us. LGBT Foreign Service families will soon, unless the Secretary acts, be forced to once again pay the cost of expensive flights to post for the non-employee partner. And they will pay that price so that their family can serve the country while the non-employee partner is once again forced to live the life of discrimination that is the life of Members of Household.

For all my friends facing this, I hope change comes soon.

Ethiopian man confesses to the murder U.S. official

Ethiopian man confesses to the murder U.S. official

An Ethiopian man has pleaded guilty to the murder of 2007 alumnus Brian Adkins, a Foreign Service officer found dead in his Ethiopia home this February, according to Adkins' family.

State Department officials told family members that a man named "Sammy" had admitted to beating Adkins to death with a baseball bat in the Ohio native's African home. Sammy, a local man whose full name was not available, had met Adkins through mutual friends who frequently played video games at the house.

At a preliminary hearing on March 27, Sammy pleaded guilty to second degree murder and stealing Adkins' possessions, said Dan Adkins, Brian's father, in an interview. Dan Adkins added that prosecutors are seeking to convict the man of first degree murder, which could result in the death penalty.

Court proceedings are happening in the African country's capital city, Addis Ababa, because the United States does not have an extradition treaty with Ethiopia. State Department officials did not return requests for comment.

Family members wrote in an e-mail to Brian's friends and acquaintances that Sammy stayed overnight at the house after he and Adkins played video games late into the night. The house was adjacent to a series of Foreign Service Officers' homes, and the compound was watched over by a guard and surrounded by concrete walls and razor wire, Dan Adkins said.

Sammy and Adkins began arguing the next morning and Sammy later told investigators he was afraid that the loud noises would alert the guard. He said he tried to quiet Adkins using a baseball bat, which was usually kept by the door for protection, and repeatedly hit him in the head and face as Adkins fell to the ground. The cause of the argument is unknown.

"I really need some closure on what caused the argument," Dan Adkins said.

A funeral director in Cleveland later told Dan Adkins that the body was so damaged it could not possibly be restored for an open-casket funeral.

Upon fleeing Adkins' house, Sammy took some of the 25-year-old's belongings, which included a cell phone, a laptop computer and a camera. He left his own cell phone at the house, which investigators used as their primary lead in the case. Sammy was later apprehended in a village six hours from Adkins' home with the belongings.

"So, in all, our son was killed for a few lousy bucks for his belongings on the street of Addis Ababa," the family's e-mail said. "What a terrible waste of a man, son, brother and a true friend to many."

The family learned about the details of the case after State Department officials visited them at their home in late February. They have also been communicating with the U.S. Ambassador to Ethiopia Donald Yamamoto. The State Department told them they did not consider the murder to be connected with terrorism or political opposition to the Ethiopian government.

Adkins earned two degrees from GW - a bachelor's degree from in 2005 and a master's degree in 2007. While in Foggy Bottom he was active in the GW Knights of Columbus and the Newman Catholic Center.

On Friday, May 1, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is scheduled to preside over a ceremony honoring Adkins and three other Foreign Service officers who have died on duty. The four officers' names will be inscribed on a memorial plaque in the State Department's main lobby at their building adjacent to campus.

Adkins was in his first year of duty in the country, performing consular work including helping Americans in distress and handling visas and passports. He was scheduled to travel to Rwanda for several weeks on the day of his death to work in the U.S. Embassy there, Dan Adkins said.

Foreign Policy: Feltman to head NEA

This today from Foreign Policy. I had hoped this would happen and happy that it has. Every interaction I have had with Ambassador Feltman has been positive and I would be happy to work for him.

State Mideast news: Feltman to head NEA, Mitchell deputies

As expected, President Barack Obama today announced his intent to nominate Jeffrey Feltman, the acting assistant secretary of State's Near Eastern affairs bureau and a former U.S. ambassador to Lebanon, to be the assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern affairs.

Feltman, a career Foreign Service officer, assumed his current position as the principal deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in February 2008, a White House press release said. Since the December retirement of David Welch, he has also served as acting assistant secretary of the bureau. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1986, Feltman has served in Beirut, Irbil, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Budapest, Tunis, and Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

Last month, Feltman went with the NSC's Dan Shapiro to Damascus for meetings with Syrian foreign ministry officials.

Sources told The Cable that Frederick Hof is expected to get into place at the State Department as the deputy to U.S. Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell next week. Hof is not expected to travel with Mitchell on his trip to the region later next week. (The NSC's Shapiro is expected to travel with Mitchell). Their itinerary is expected to include meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem, as well as other stops. Mitchell is not expected to go to Damascus at this time, a Washington think tank Iran hand said.

Mitchell has been spending much of the past two weeks on the Hill, a Washington Middle East hand said. He noted that the State Department declared Mitchell's forthcoming trip to the region Monday about the same time as Obama strongly re-asserted his administration's commitment to the two state solution in speeches in Turkey, following remarks disparaging the validity of the Annapolis peace process by Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

"I think Barack Obama's statement in Turkey, followed hours later by the announcement of Mitchell's trip," is no coincidence, the Washington Middle East expert said. "They didn't have to announce it at the same time. It was a pointed rejoinder" to Netanyahu's failure to distance himself from Lieberman's remarks, he said.

Meantime, multiple sources said that NSC chief of staff Mara Rudman was likely to go work for Mitchell, either as a deputy or as his chief of staff. She didn't respond to a query. Also expected to possibly be sent to Jerusalem for Mitchell at the end of the summer is principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the NEA bureau David Hale. Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, who has been in charge of efforts to build the capacity of the Palestinian security forces, has reportedly been asked by Mitchell to stay on for another two years.

Obama appoints gay man interim ambassador to India

Obama appoints gay man interim ambassador to India

Peter Burleigh, a seasoned foreign service officer with deep expertise in South Asian affairs, will serve as America’s top diplomat in India until a permanent ambassador is named, according to reports in the Indian press.

In a 2008 profile of Burleigh in the South Florida Blade, the former acting ambassador to the United Nations said he had sometimes had to hide his sexual orientation during his more than 30-year career as diplomat:

“Up until the 1980s, it was dangerous [to be out] because you couldn’t do foreign work without security clearance,” Burleigh said. “By 1990, it was no longer a problem if you were out.”

Burleigh said he was open about his sexuality within the State Department once the policy changed. He kept his private life to himself, however, when he was assigned to foreign countries where homophobic attitudes prevailed in the culture.

The Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute’s Presidential Appointments Project is championing several openly gay candidates for ambassadorial nominations as President Obama pulls together his diplomatic team. For information on the Presidential Appointments Project, go here.

Confirmations

According to Al Kamen this morning in the Washington Post, five top State Department officials were confirmed this past week: Richard Verma as Assistant Secretary legislative affairs (L), Esther Brimmer as Assistant Secretary for international organization affairs (IO), Rose Gottemoeller as Assistant Secretary verification and compliance (VCI), Melanne Verveer as ambassador at large for global women's issues, and Army Lt. Gen. Karl Eikenberry as ambassador to Afghanistan.

WP: Diplomatic Efforts Get Tech Support

From this morning's Washington Post:

Diplomatic Efforts Get Tech Support

Alec Ross arrives today at the State Department, armed with a new set of diplomatic tools including Facebook, text messaging and YouTube.

Ross is a senior adviser on innovation to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton -- a role created for the 37-year-old nonprofit leader, who quickly rose within the Obama campaign, helping to craft tech policy under top technology adviser Julius Genachowski.

His new job will blend technology with diplomacy in an attempt to help solve some of the globe's most vexing problems on health care, poverty, human rights and ethnic conflicts. And it is emblematic of the expansive approach the administration has taken to the role of technology in advancing its domestic and global agendas.

"Secretary Clinton believes technology is a powerful tool to address the priorities of the State Department, including promoting human rights and vibrant democracies, fostering development and enhancing the impact of smart power," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood. "Alec's track record of successfully using technology for development initiatives around the world made him an ideal candidate for this job."

Projects could include the use of cellphone text messaging as a way to reach isolated communities to warn people of natural disaster or remind patients to take medication. Social networking sites could bring together youth in warring tribes to communicate and organize cultural exchanges. Software could be used to help ensure aid is delivered by creating supply-chain systems.

Ross will work for the chief of staff, Cheryl Mills, Wood said.

"I don't believe tech is an end into itself to solve problems," Ross said, "but it can be a critical part of the solution."

Critics have their doubts about whether concrete solutions can be achieved through technology, however. Economists have questioned, for example, whether stimulus funds for health-care information technology and broadband Internet will substantially boost employment.

But friends and colleagues who worked on the Obama campaign and transition say Ross has what it takes to pull it off: business savvy and the ability to bring large, disparate groups together.

In 2000, he co-founded the nonprofit group One Economy, which uses technology to help low-income communities, and built it into a multimillion-dollar organization with donations from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Cisco, Yahoo and AT&T.

"Alec has an extraordinary entrepreneurial skill set," said Blair Levin, a telecom analyst who led Obama's tech policy group along with Genachowski during the transition. "Through partnership with all kinds of different players, he sees opportunities that others don't and makes connections that others don't that will be critical in this new job."

Ross is an unlikely Washington operator. He commutes to the District from Baltimore, where he settled more than 10 years ago as a Teach for America volunteer working at a middle school on the city's economically troubled west side. He grew up near Charleston, W.Va., where unemployment was ever rising. He named the first of his three children Colton, a play on "coal town," as a "shout-out" to his roots, he said.

"Living in Baltimore keeps me planted in reality," he said.

Ross has no formal training in technology. And unlike most of Washington's tech policy leaders, he wasn't groomed at the Federal Communications Commission or through the FCC Bar Association.

Yet he was charged with managing hundreds of policy advisers brought together to develop the president's tech and innovation plan. In that role, he assigned duties to high-tech titans such as Google chief executive Eric E. Schmidt, academics including Stanford law professor Larry Lessig, nonprofit leaders and investors.

HRC Press Release: Berry Confirmed

I received this press release from the Human Rights Campaign:

Human Rights Campaign Statement on Confirmation of John Berry as Director of the Office of Personnel Management

HRC President Joe Solmonese: “John Berry has an exemplary record of leadership in both the public and private sector.”

WASHINGTON – The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender civil rights group, today praised the confirmation of John Berry as Director of the Office of Personnel Management. Berry, who previously served as director of the National Zoological Park, is the highest ranking, openly gay man to be appointed in the Obama administration.

“As the human resource agency for the federal government, OPM is responsible for implementing the Administration’s personnel policies. John Berry has an exemplary record of leadership in both the public and private sector. As Director of OPM we fully expect that he will apply federal employment policies fairly and equitably to all employees, including LBGT workers,” said Human Rights Campaign President Joe Solmonese.

At his confirmation hearing, Berry emphasized the need for the federal government to adopt policies which make it competitive with the private sector. Although the federal government has historically been a leader in providing strong employee benefits, it now lags behind the private sector because its lesbian and gay employees cannot take advantage of the high-quality family health insurance program and other benefits. By contrast, most Fortune 500 companies now reward their gay and lesbian workers equally for their equal contributions.

Before his time at the National Zoological Park, Berry was executive director of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, a congressionally chartered nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of the nation’s wildlife resources. Prior to joining the Wildlife Foundation, Berry served as Assistant Secretary for Policy, Management and Budget at the Interior Department for three years.

The Human Rights Campaign is America’s largest civil rights organization working to achieve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender equality. By inspiring and engaging all Americans, HRC strives to end discrimination against LGBT citizens and realize a nation that achieves fundamental fairness and equality for all.

They also note that shortly after the House and Senate return from recess April 20, the Domestic Partnership Benefits and Obligations Act will re-introduced.

Washington Blade: Obama asked to appoint gays to ambassador posts

From today's Washington Blade:

Obama asked to appoint gays to ambassador posts
LGBT appointments group says gays are among list of contenders

The Obama administration may be considering as many as three openly gay candidates for nomination as a U.S. ambassador to a foreign country, according to an official with the Gay & Lesbian Leadership Institute.

George Walker, the institute’s vice president of leadership initiatives, said his organization’s Presidential Appointments Project is calling on the administration to consider appointing qualified, openly LGBT candidates for a wide range of government jobs, including ambassadorial positions.

“I hear there’s a few applicants and they’re all political,” Walker said in discussing possible LGBT ambassadorial appointments. “I can’t disclose any names and I don’t know where they stand.”

Walker was referring to the approximately 30 percent of ambassadorial appointments that traditionally go to people who are not career U.S. Foreign Service officers. Often referred to as “non-career” or “political” appointments, people who fall into this category often are longtime political allies of the president or major party donors.

Only two out gays have served as a U.S. ambassador. President Bill Clinton appointed San Francisco philanthropist and Democratic Party activist James Hormel as ambassador to Luxemburg. President George W. Bush appointed career Foreign Service Officer Michael Guest as ambassador to Romania.

At the time they were nominated, gay activists and independent political observers described Hormel and Guest as highly qualified for the positions. Hormel, an attorney and successful businessman, had served in a United Nations-related position prior to his nomination and was said to be knowledgeable in foreign affairs.

Guest had a distinguished career as a Foreign Service officer in a number of countries in Europe and other locations at the time of his nomination.

Guest, who was an active Obama supporter during last year’s presidential campaign, said this week that he is not interested in an administration position of any kind at this time.

State Department spokesperson Noel Clay said the State Department always defers to the White House about media inquires related to ambassadorial nominations. White House spokesperson Shin Inouye said the White House never comments on administration appointments until they are officially announced.

Records posted on the White House web site and information available from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which approves nominations for ambassador posts, show that Obama has submitted nominations for five ambassadors. Among them are ambassadors to the United Nations, Iraq, Afghanistan and Ireland, plus the Ambassador At-Large for Global Women’s Issues.

None of those appointments went to an LGBT person, according to activists familiar with the appointment process.

Sources familiar with the administration have said a flurry of ambassadorial nominations are expected to be issued by the White House within the next several weeks and one or more LGBT appointees could be picked.

Hormel and Guest were subjected to some criticism because of their sexual orientation. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) denounced Hormel as a representative of homosexual “special interests” and took steps to block his nomination in the Senate. Clinton eventually took the unusual step of using his authority to appoint Hormel as ambassador when Congress was in recess.

The Senate approved Guest’s nomination after his sexual orientation did not surface in his confirmation hearing or at the time the full Senate voted to approve him. However, Guest came under attack from one or two conservative groups in Romania, which made an issue of his sexual orientation.

The Romanian government ignored the attacks and praised his work in advancing U.S. efforts to help the country’s economic development programs. The Washington Times reported in 2003 that Guest’s sexual orientation might have prompted the Bush White House to cut short his tenure as Romanian ambassador. But Guest and the State Department, which praised Guest’s accomplishments, insisted he had completed his scheduled two-year term as ambassador and was slated for a new assignment.

Mountainrunner: Isolated Overseas: Diplomatic Security Creates Challenges for American Public Diplomacy

Mountainrunner's guest blogger Mitchell Polman wrote a piece yesterday on challenges for Public Diplomacy:

Isolated Overseas: Diplomatic Security Creates Challenges for American Public Diplomacy

When Congress voted to abolish the U.S. Information Agency (USIA) in 1999, America's public image abroad suffered a significant blow. This decision - inspired by the desire to shrink government and the predominant belief that USIA was an ineffective bureaucracy - closed many USIA-run American libraries and cultural centers around the world that were helping to promote better understanding of American culture and society. These gathering places - located in embassy buildings or in libraries and cultural buildings of host countries - were an important tool for U.S. public diplomacy. They organized English language classes, discussions about American society and politics, films, and other cultural events. Local residents had safe and accessible places to read American books and periodicals, find out about educational exchanges, take U.S. college entrance and language exams, and interact with American citizens.

But beyond the loss of a special department devoted to public diplomacy, America's international image and outreach have been hurt by changes in diplomatic security standards following embassy bombings in the 1990s and the tragic events of September 11. New security requirements, designed to keep our diplomats and their families safe, often put American cultural resources out of sight and out of reach for foreign citizens with a healthy interest in American affairs. As a result, we are losing what legendary journalist and one-time USIA director Edward R. Murrow called "the last three feet" in our country's "communication chain."

You can read the entire piece here.