Remarks at the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) Pride Event

Remarks at the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies (GLIFAA) Pride Event

John Kerry
Secretary of State
Dean Acheson Auditorium
Washington, DC
June 19, 2013

SECRETARY KERRY: Thank you very much. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you. Thank you. Please, please, please, please. Thank you. (Applause.) Thank you very, very much. Ken, thank you for a generous welcome. Thank you all. Secretary Pat Kennedy and Director General Linda Thomas-Greenfield, thank you for being here, and others. We appreciate it. Tara, everybody, thank you for being here.

And Ken, when I heard you say you could talk forever about my efforts on behalf of LGBT, I was sitting there, like any formerly elected person for 29 years, and I said, “Go ahead, keep talking, keep talking.” (Laughter.) But no such luck today.

I appreciate the opportunity to be here with all of you, and very, very special to welcome just some super special guests here, and I want them to stand up and I want everybody to say thank you to them and recognize them. Judy and Dennis Shepard are here, and we’re so grateful for you being here. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. (Applause.)

I remind everybody that it is amazing to think, but it has been nearly 15 years since we mourned the tragic murder of their son, Matthew. And I can remember very clearly meeting them previously and speaking to the crowd gathered on the National Mall in front of the Capitol building at a vigil that was held two nights after he was killed. Thousands of people came together to share their grief, but also to share their sense of outrage that such an act could be carried out, such a senseless, violent, terrible heartbreak. And we were all standing with Judy and Dennis on that dark night, and frankly, since then, they have helped to lead the way through darkness and into the light, and they’ve turned their pain and their loss into a remarkable global message of hope and of tolerance. So, Judy and Dennis, make no mistake: You really do inspire us and we are very honored to have you here with us today. Thank you.

I also want – I know Congressman John Lewis was here a little bit ago, I think, and he had to leave to go vote. There are few members, few people I’ve met in life who I admire as much as John Lewis. He was almost killed on that day down in Selma, and he led, at the side of Martin Luther King and others, to break the back of Jim Crow in this country. John is just without doubt one of the most self-effacing, beautiful human beings I have ever met and an amazing person of courage who demonstrates what you can do against, as Bobby Kennedy said, the enormous array of the world’s ills. So we thank him for being here today, and most importantly, we thank him for standing up on the front lines of fighting for people’s rights for all of these years.

I also want to thank Mara Keisling from the National Center for Transgender Equality. Thanks for being here and for your contributions. And I want to thank Acting Assistant Secretary Uzra Zeya from our Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. We’re very, very grateful also to the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington for that wonderful rendition of our national anthem, and thank you for their performance.

As Ken said, I have had the privilege of being involved in the struggle for rights, for LGBT rights, for a long period of time. And it is a privilege. Coming from Massachusetts, maybe we inherently know something about fighting for rights from the inception. But it wasn’t that long ago, as I recall, and many of you, I’m sure, do too, when things looked very different from the way they look today. If you want an amusing read before you go to sleep, go get the transcript of my testimony before Strom Thurmond on the Armed Services Committee 20 years ago, when we first pushed for an end on the ban on gays in the military. If you want to read a Senate hearing that is actually literally like a Saturday night skit – Saturday Night Live skit, that is it. And I won’t go into all the questions that Strom and his inimitable accent posed to me – (laughter) – but I walked out of there thinking that I was truly on a different planet, or he was; one or the other. (Laughter.)

But we ran into a wall of misunderstanding and of misperception. But as we are learning even today, as we look at various places in the world where homophobia raises its ugly and frightened head, we see that there is fear and that a lot is driven by fear – always has been – not always with respect to LGBT issues, but with respect to people generally, with respect to race and religion. And this is an ongoing battle for all of us, and believe me, not just for us; it is an ongoing battle in hidden parts of this planet, in dark corners where there is no light, where people are thrown into jail, or worse, beaten brutally, tortured and even murdered because of who they are or what they believe.

So we have an enormous challenge ahead of us, and all of you, every single person here, because you have the privilege of being here in this building, in this freedom, able to talk about this; it is because of that that you actually bear also a larger responsibility. When I voted, as Ken said, in 1996, I don’t claim any great act of courage. Maybe it was because I did represent the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, but nevertheless I was proud to be the only person running for reelection that year in those 14 who actually voted against DOMA. And I am confident that if the Supreme Court adheres to the law and to precedent, that it must be found unconstitutional.

Now, we also know that we’ve made progress where – (applause) – now, if it isn’t, you can take that applause back in your home someday. (Laughter.)

Obviously, the landscape has changed remarkably fast. And every one of you here deserves credit for that. You all know your individual journeys in this effort, whether you are a member of the LGBT community or whether you are a supporter and a friend and here in solidarity with it. But everybody understands that things are changing because people have dared to stand up and show solidarity and speak common sense and talk truth to sometimes ugly power.

And the fact is that we have an Administration today that I am proud to say no longer defends the constitutionality of DOMA. That’s an enormous step forward. We also have a Senate that recently welcomed its first openly gay member, and we have a record number in the House of Representatives. I can remember when the first person came out in the House of Representatives within the service – time of my service in the Senate. We also have seen how “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” is now a part of history, and that no American who wants to wear the uniform of their country that they love will be denied the chance to serve the country they love because of whom they love.

So we’re making progress. And that is the sort of change that we are seeing spread across the country, as state after state breaks down the barrier – the real barriers – to honest equality, not only in the workplace but throughout life.

But we have to say, as we gather here today, that we still do have a distance to travel. Far too many women and men and families are still denied equality under our laws. Two of my former constituents, just to give you an example – I got to meet them – a fellow named Junior and Tim, who were married in Massachusetts, but because of DOMA the Federal Government didn’t recognize their marriage. And so the law treated them differently than if they had been man and woman, married. And time after time, when I met with them – and I did frequently and learn how hard it was that they couldn’t choose the path that they wanted to for themselves – but they also reminded me in the course of their life history what, in fact, marriage is supposed to be all about, which is an enduring love, a love that actually keeps you together even when you’ve been separated and it’s as if you hadn’t been. And I’ll tell you why, because one of them was out of the country and couldn’t come back in and we had to go through hoops to be able to actually ultimately reunite them here in our country because of our immigration laws.

They’re not alone. A few weeks ago, I was standing right here in this room at my first town hall when a young FSO named Selim Ariturk stood up and told a similar story about his life and his partner, whom he’d met overseas during his first tour. And he had to jump through hoops to be treated fairly. I know that many of you have probably experienced very similar stories, or even experienced them individually.

So the reality is, even as we celebrate, we have to come here today and commit ourselves to the ultimate task of fulfilling equality under the law here in our own country, and we have to be clear-eyed about the challenges that remain. I believe that we are on an irreversible course, and I believe happily that the United States of America is helping to set a global example for how people ought to be treated in life. I think that – I make this commitment to you that as Secretary of State, I will continue to stand right where I have stood throughout my years of elected service, and that begins with how we treat our LGBT colleagues right here in the State Department.

And I think under Pat and Linda’s and other people’s stewardship, we are already doing an outstanding job. Same-sex partners and spouses at overseas missions enjoy the same benefits allowed by law as all of our employees’ families. And we’ve included a category for same-sex partners in our personnel system. It’s now easier for transgender Americans to change the gender on their passport. It may seem like a small thing, but it’s a big deal. And we’ve stated unequivocally that this Department does not discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

I’m happy to say that these steps reflect not just the Department view, but President Obama’s view, and President Obama’s commitment to full equality, no matter who you are or who you love. And as Americans send us out to show our face to the world in this Department, we will set an example through our respect for the rights of people everywhere. Having GLIFAA members as part of that American face, frankly, helps us demonstrate our leadership.

Our work, though, is more than just setting an example. We got to be out there showing up in places where progress on LGBT rights has been slower and harder to achieve, and where using our tools of development and diplomacy actually leverage our efforts forward in this endeavor. And we remain focused on this and will, because American leadership requires promoting universal values. That’s what this represents. This isn’t an aberration. This isn’t some step out of the mainstream. It’s actually the mainstream is out of step with what ought to be the mainstream. The mainstream represents the recognition of universal rights that have been true since humankind began writing about them and defining them, and as we have moved through the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries to this place in the 21st century, where we understand that dignity and equality and the rights of all people are at the center of what we ought to be espousing in our public and our private life.

When we see the abuse of those values that are directed at the LGBT community, we have a moral obligation to stand in pride with LGBT individuals and advocates. We have a moral obligation to decry the marginalization and persecution of LGBT persons. And we have a moral obligation to promote societies that are more just, more fair, and tolerant.

It is the right thing to do. It’s also in our country’s strategic interest. Greater inclusion and protection of human rights, including those for LGBT people and for their communities, leads to greater stability, greater prosperity, and greater protection for the rights of human beings. Stronger partners on the world stage are built out of this endeavor, and the truth is that in the end, it can actually help project peace and security across the whole region.

And that is why, in 2011, President Obama issued the first-ever Presidential Memorandum on the human rights of LGBT persons globally, directing that all agencies abroad must ensure that our diplomacy and our foreign assistance promotes and protects these rights. And I think we have accomplished a great deal on this issue.

With our support, the UN Human Rights Council passed its first-ever resolution affirming the rights of LGBT persons. Through PEPFAR’s blueprint for an AIDS-free generation, we are working to scale up HIV services for LGBT individuals, who are often at higher risk. Our Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration is expanding our effort to help LGBT refugees and asylum seekers. And we are providing LGBT travelers with information about countries where they may face prosecution or arrest – persecution.

Overseas, we’re encouraging our missions to think about how do you best support these goals. And here at home, we’ve set up a Department-wide task force that will develop new approaches in order to try to better integrate LGBT policy into our foreign policy.

And through our Global Partnerships Initiative – I just met with members of it a few minutes ago – we have set up the Global Equality Fund, and that will support LGBT human rights defenders on the front lines. We’re working with likeminded governments, including Norway, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Iceland, and Finland. And we have partnered with private sector leaders, including the MAC AIDS Fund and the John D. Evans Foundation. I think they both are here. And we are especially grateful to the Arcus Foundation, which will match any corporate contribution that we receive up to $1 million. And we hope that additional partners are going to join us in this critical effort.

So all of this that I’ve talked about is a good start, my friends, but it’s just that. It’s a start. Last week, the President appointed three openly gay ambassadors to Denmark, Spain, and to the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe. And they will build on the tremendous record and work by Ambassador Huebner and former Ambassadors Hormel and Guest. In fact, I remember the confirmation hearing for former Ambassador Hormel, which in itself was a kind of groundbreaking, difficult process which we ultimately succeeded in winning.

So we are committed to seeing more LGBT persons in senior positions in this Department. And I ask for your input and all of your ideas, so that in the coming days I can sit down and work with our team here to ensure that the Department is properly resourcing and prioritizing our international efforts for the next generation of LGBT progress.

I think everybody here knows this isn’t automatic, not always an easy path. There is fear, and from the fear, the hate that sometimes comes with it that translates too often into violence. We still see anti-propaganda laws in Eastern Europe that are targeting LGBT demonstrators. We still hear reports of violence amongst – against transgender persons in Latin America and Asia. We still see the enforcement of archaic sodomy laws in the Caribbean, and we see abuse and incarceration of LGBT activists in Africa.

But I believe, as I think you do, that today we come here in pride, with pride, to celebrate the fact that the winds of freedom are blowing in the right direction. We know that the intolerance towards LGBT brothers and sisters fades with each passing generation. And it is with a belief in our common humanity, in the fundamental worth of every human being, that we have to keep moving forward towards our goal of shared justice and equality here in our country and around the world.

So I especially join here today in saying to our GLIFAA members and to all of you, Happy Pride every day the world over. Thank you for the privilege of being with you. Thank you. (Applause.)

Please sit down. I gather we’re going to do a couple questions, so we’ll – I’ll do that.

MR. KERO-MENTZ: Great, great. Thank you very much, Mr. Secretary. I loved what you said about where homophobia rears its ugly and frightened head, we’ll be there. I thought that was a really powerful statement, and demonstrates your long-held and heartfelt belief in equality and human rights for everyone. So thank you very much. Thank you as well for your mention of GLIFAA, and it’s great to know that we have your back – or you have our back, and you’ve got our back, and we’ve got your back.

SECRETARY KERRY: You’ve got to have mine too, folks, or I’m in trouble. (Laughter.) I’m counting on you.

MR. KERO-MENTZ: So – and thank you for answering a couple of questions. We asked our GLIFAA post representatives overseas – we’ve got about 100 serving in our embassies and consulates – to send us some questions that maybe we could pose to you. And you’ve got probably time for about two of them, if that’s okay.

SECRETARY KERRY: Sure.

MR. KERO-MENTZ: The first question from our GLIFAA post rep in Kyiv, Ukraine, Doug Morrow. He asks, “I’ve noticed a marked increase in anti-gay legislation and homophobic statements made by host country government officials and religious leaders in many countries around the world, including Nigeria, Ukraine, Russia, Uganda, and elsewhere. There seems to be a relationship between this sort of state-sponsored homophobia and increases in hate crimes against LGBT activists and individuals. Many of us have seen it firsthand. I know that the Department in our missions overseas are promoting human rights for everyone, including LGBT persons, but what more could we reasonably do to combat state-sponsored homophobia?”

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, that’s a great question. What we need to do is do things like we’re doing here today, where you speak out and where you show people what is appropriate as well as permissible. In a lot of places – I’ve seen it for years. I used to – when I was in the DA’s office, I used to be a prosecutor. I remember going and meeting with kids, young kids, because I wanted to find out why kids were falling into the criminal justice system at age – whatever, 14, 15, 16. And almost invariably, almost ninety-whatever percent it was, I found kids who came from very troubled families, from places where they didn’t have adult input. And like everybody in life, we all learn from people ahead of us.

And so this is going through a huge generational transformation where, in fact, today, we’re kind of learning from a younger generation where the kinds of things that older folks who lived in a different norm are not as in touch with, but where the younger folks coming up are realizing none of this really matters. They’re just growing up with a different sense of what’s important. And as kids have come out in high school or in college or whatever, and their friends are their friends, they realize this person isn’t any different, and it breaks down the barriers. So what you had is a whole transformation taking place that hasn’t taken place in many of these other countries.

I’ve never met any child – two and half, three years old – who hates anybody. They hate their broccoli maybe, or they hate – but they don’t hate people. They haven’t learned it yet. And so the issue is really one of teaching people, of setting up rule of law, of establishing a different norm where people begin to break down the fear and they recognize that they’re not, in fact, threatened. And I think – it doesn’t mean you’re going to change everybody’s minds overnight. There are people who hold a strongly held religious belief or cultural belief, and they may go to their grave believing that, but that doesn’t mean they have to be intolerant.

And that’s the key thing that I think America has so much more than almost any other place that I know. We’re not without fault. We’re not without ability to be criticized. But by and large, we are capable of showing more tolerance than almost any other people. Not exclusive; there are people in Europe and people in some other countries who also share that.

But I think what we have to do is help people to feel they are protected in their ability to be able to stand up, as they have in France recently, against very bitter opposition, very divisive, but they won. And it changed things, and it will change things, and the next generation that comes along will see that. And over time – and I mean time, real time – we will break down in some of these more difficult places this notion that you have to actually hate people and punish them for who they are. It doesn’t mean you have to agree with them; it doesn’t mean you have to adopt that – or whatever, that you can give people space to live and live their life.

Now, interestingly, in a lot of these places where that challenge is particularly difficult, we also face the challenge of just getting them to accept democracy, or getting them to accept reasonable standards of rule of law and the ability of people to speak their mind and a whole bunch of other things that we value enormously as the defining assets of our nationhood and of our citizenship. Those things have to be able to be promoted elsewhere. So I think doing what we’re doing, going out and advocating, standing up against that injustice, speaking out in various countries about human rights as we will continue to everywhere we go, will over time allow the same evolutionary process to take place in some of these places of resistance as it has here and in other parts of the world, in other countries in Europe and elsewhere. And I think ultimately we just have to keep standing up for tolerance and for diversity, and I guarantee you under this Administration we certainly will continue to do that and, I hope, for the long-term future.

MR. KERO-MENTZ: Great. Thank you. Mr. Secretary, this next question comes from our GLIFAA post rep in Tijuana, Mexico, Victor Garcia-Rivera, who asks, "What preparations has the Department of State made for when DOMA is struck down, particularly with regards to expedited naturalization for our foreign national same-sex spouses? Should the court strike down DOMA, as hoped, can we all – can we expect all things to be equal, including immigration rights?"

SECRETARY KERRY: Well, I should probably let Pat Kennedy and Linda tackle this question, because they’re the ones who are working this through, but we’ve talked about it in our meetings. We are planning for the expectation that DOMA will be struck down in some form, and we’re laying the groundwork for all the things that we need to adjust. And I will just tell you, frankly, we are looking forward to the opportunity of doing that, because it will define the road ahead for us much more easily, it’ll be far less complicated, and I think everybody here will breathe a sigh of relief if that ruling comes through the way we hope it will.

So we’re laying all the groundwork necessary so that every law or every practice or every – whatever process is in place by history and precedent here will be evaluated against the notion that that law is no longer the law of the land, and therefore that everybody is indeed fully equal and we have to apply policies accordingly. And you can count on the fact that that will happen. And I think we’ll probably get a decision before too long here. So Pat Kennedy is anxiously awaiting that decision, folks. He’s crunching down further in his seat right now. (Laughter.)

Thank you. Anyway, Happy Pride to all. Thank you for the privilege of being here, and I wish you well. Thank you very much. (Applause.)

Why Public Diplomacy Matters

Bottom Line Diplomacy: Why Public Diplomacy Matters

Remarks
Tara Sonenshine Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs
Center for Strategic and International Studies
Washington, DC
June 18, 2013

Thank you, Andrew, and congratulations to CSIS, on 50 years of strategic insights and bipartisan policy solutions.

As spring is about to turn, formally, to summer, in just a few days, we all should turn now to books, beaches, and blue skies. Now you might be wondering what those wonderful images have to do with public diplomacy and the start of a speech. Well--if you happen to go down to Ocean City, Maryland, or Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, or many resort towns, you’ll run into young people working summer jobs and speaking English with accents from Belfast to Belgrade.

They are here through one of the State Department’s cultural exchange programs known as Summer Work Travel. But they are actually part of a larger community – tens of thousands of students, teachers, researchers and business professionals – that comes to the United States at all times of the year to experience American culture. And they are one example of what I want to focus on today—the major dividend that we, as a nation, get, from engaging with people around the world and the often overlooked impact on our society of having international citizens spend time in our country and our citizens going abroad.

Take, for example, the dividend that comes from the hundreds of thousands of international students who study each year on U.S. college campuses – undergraduate and graduate. Those nearly 765,000 foreign students contribute $22.7 billion to the U.S. economy, making higher education among our top service sector exports. Now that is not the only reason we bring students to America. There is a value much greater and much deeper than just financial. But at a time of measurement and evaluation, metrics, and quantitative proof of concept, this economic contribution is worth noting.

I mention this because – as I take leave as Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs – I want to make Americans more aware of what the State Department does, --specifically public diplomacy- how much real value it brings to jobs overseas, jobs here, education, entrepreneurship, travel, tourism, and a healthy and robust trade and investment climate in both directions.

I have come to think of the work I do as “bottom line diplomacy” because the allocation of resources is an important part of any equation – not only because of our continuing economic recovery but because we need to justify public expenditure to our only governing board – the American people. And we have clear results that demonstrate value.

But let me make something clear: Bottom line diplomacy isn’t about reducing everything to how much it costs. It’s the opposite. It’s about expanding our perspective so we see – and reap – the long term benefits for our own citizens. In other words, bottom line diplomacy is the fusion of economic statecraft and public diplomacy.

It understands that – for example – when our educational advisors in 170 countries provide millions of aspiring foreign students with accurate, comprehensive information about our colleges and universities, they’re not just helping people build their own prosperous futures. They’re bringing economic benefit to the U.S. economy.

Standing up for workers’ rights and high labor standards, more broadly shared economic opportunity, and human rights is both right and moral, but it is also smart and strategic. Studies show that when we build inclusive economies, safeguard freedoms, invest in education, and encourage opportunity, people become more healthy, productive, democratic, empowered, and prosperous. They are more likely to become viable economic, trade, social, political and strategic partners, enhancing security and prosperity for all.

That equation draws a direct line between our foreign policy, economic priorities and our public diplomacy as a way of building prosperity and protecting our national interests. When Sen. Lindsay Graham referred to public diplomacy as “national security insurance,” I know exactly what he meant.

Through economic statecraft, for example, we work with international institutions—including the G8, ILO, IFI, and OECD – to forge open, free, transparent, and fair markets. But as we do that, our public diplomacy is working to create the conditions for economic growth by reaching out to and supporting people as they build better futures.

Bottom line diplomacy, then, is about building and strengthening the hyphen between the flow of money and the productive index of people.

We know, for example, that when we make engaging women an integral part of our foreign policy, the economic benefits are enormous. Again, studies have long confirmed this. Unlocking the economic potential of 50 percent of the world’s population through engagement with women and girls is a hallmark of this Administration and this State Department and it pays dividends. Through programs such as Tech Women, economic partnerships such as The Middle East Respond Fund, through our U.S.-Middle East Partnership Initiative, economic assistance programs, Partners for a New Beginning, WeAmerica, and other programs, our support extends to aspiring businesswomen and civil society leaders.

Global engagement opens doors that open minds – especially young minds. And some of our most effective outreach to young people comes from our own American young diplomats. Let me pause for a moment and reflect on Anne Smedinghoff, a young State Department colleague who became the first diplomat to die in Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan in April. On her final day, Anne was opening very big doors. She was working to support an educational program to promote literacy in Afghanistan. She was delivering books to young Afghans when she was killed. In her memory, today, I would like to announce the Anne Smedinghoff Award for Public Diplomacy Excellence for first and second tour Department of State officers. This award keeps Anne’s spirit alive by recognizing outstanding officers who open the doors of engagement, understanding, and opportunity.

To open doors in today’s globalized economy, you have to use social media, which is why we spend so much time building up our social media capabilities at State from virtual exchanges to an active online presence to online English language teaching.

Through social media and traditional public diplomacy we build skills for entrepreneurism. As we learned from the Arab Spring, the lack of economic opportunity for young people can lead to frustrated and disenfranchised youth who lack optimism in the prospects of their future. And so we engage online, both to create positive alternative scenarios and to use online media to counter negative scenarios like violent extremism which costs lives and treasure.

Public diplomacy today is about the movement of ideas. Through our Global Entrepreneurship Program, we identify promising entrepreneurs, train them, and link them with mentors and potential investors. And because support of their host governments is crucial to their future success, we advocate robustly for supportive economic policies and regulations.

We also engage citizens through our cornerstone American Spaces program. American Spaces offer each Embassy gathering places to connect with young people, foster new ideas, help foreign students pursue studies in the U.S. and promote English language learning—giving our contacts overseas the medium to engage in trade internationally—with the U.S. and other countries.

In October 2012, we joined the Youth Livelihoods Alliance, a multi-sector global initiative that aims to address the challenges of youth unemployment and increase opportunities for young people’s economic participation. The United States is also investing up to $2 billion in the creation of open online educational and job training resources.

Through our own Economic Public Diplomacy Innovation Fund, we are encouraging embassies to intersect with entrepreneurs and economic stakeholders, so we can advance investment, training, and economic engagement.

One last area of work I want to tell you about. The State Department team has pulled out all stops to support President Obama’s Travel and Tourism strategy, to encourage more travel to the United States, with brings with it clear benefit to the U.S and the American people -- more American jobs, expanded engagement with foreign publics, and strengthened economic statecraft. The Department of Commerce just released some very encouraging figures: Due at least in part to our efforts, travel and tourism to the United States rose by seven percent over the last year. Part of that effort came from public diplomacy.

I will miss my work at the State Department where, on any given day, the breadth and depth of our capabilities are palpable.

Secretary Kerry emerging from a bilateral meeting with a world leader. Students from Libya, Tunisia, or Egypt, or religious scholars from Chad visiting my office Community leaders from Latin America and the Caribbean meeting with Department officials to look for ways to improve the safety of all citizens in our hemisphere. Translators delivering our messages to Arab, Chinese, Urdu, Russian and other audiences. Regional bureaus communicating with embassies around the world. Experts communicating with critical audiences around the world via video feeds and CO.NX links. The message is clear: We are proactive and responsive in the fast-breaking, constantly evolving global conversation of the 21st century – and we are not stopping. Thank you.

Statement on LGBT Pride Month by Secretary Kerry

Press Statement
John Kerry
Secretary of State
Washington, DC
June 4, 2013

The Department of State joins people around the world in celebrating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) Pride Month. Forty-four years after Stonewall, we see incredible progress in the fight to advance the human rights and fundamental freedoms of LGBT people, both here in the United States and globally. Protecting universal human rights is at the very heart of our diplomacy, and we remain committed to advancing human rights for all, including LGBT individuals.

Unfortunately, recent events underscore that we can’t be content with the progress we’ve made. We still have a long way to go. All over the world, people continue to be killed, arrested, and harassed simply because of who they are, or who they love. There are LGBT people of all ages, all races and all faiths, citizens of every country on Earth. In too many places, LGBT people and their supporters are still attacked if they just attempt to stand up for their rights and participate in peaceful rallies or marches, or simply for being who they are.

The United States condemns this violence and harassment. LGBT persons must be free to exercise their human rights—including freedom of expression, freedom of religion and freedom of assembly and association—without fear of reprisal. Human rights and fundamental freedoms belong to all individuals, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.

The United States will continue to stand up for the human rights of all people, during this month and every month throughout the year, and we are proud to do so.

Presidential Proclamation -- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2013

Presidential Proclamation -- Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2013

LESBIAN, GAY, BISEXUAL, AND TRANSGENDER PRIDE MONTH, 2013

- - - - - - - 

BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

A PROCLAMATION

For more than two centuries, our Nation has struggled to transform the ideals of liberty and equality from founding promise into lasting reality. Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Americans and their allies have been hard at work on the next great chapter of that history -- from the patrons of The Stonewall Inn who sparked a movement to service members who can finally be honest about who they love to brave young people who come out and speak out every day.

This year, we celebrate LGBT Pride Month at a moment of great hope and progress, recognizing that more needs to be done. Support for LGBT equality is growing, led by a generation which understands that, in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., "injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." In the past year, for the first time, voters in multiple States affirmed marriage equality for same-sex couples. State and local governments have taken important steps to provide much-needed protections for transgender Americans.

My Administration is a proud partner in the journey toward LGBT equality. We extended hate crimes protections to include attacks based on sexual orientation or gender identity and repealed "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." We lifted the HIV entry ban and ensured hospital visitation rights for LGBT patients. Together, we have investigated and addressed pervasive bullying faced by LGBT students, prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in Federal housing, and extended benefits for same-sex domestic partners. Earlier this year, I signed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) that prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity in the implementation of any VAWA-funded program. And because LGBT rights are human rights, my Administration is implementing the first-ever Federal strategy to advance equality for LGBT people around the world.

We have witnessed real and lasting change, but our work is not complete. I continue to support a fully inclusive Employment Non-Discrimination Act, as well as the Respect for Marriage Act. My Administration continues to implement the Affordable Care Act, which beginning in 2014, prohibits insurers from denying coverage to consumers based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, as well as the National HIV/AIDS Strategy, which addresses the disparate impact of the HIV epidemic among certain LGBT sub-communities. We have a long way to go, but if we continue on this path together, I am confident that one day soon, from coast to coast, all of our young people will look to the future with the same sense of promise and possibility. I am confident because I have seen the talent, passion, and commitment of LGBT advocates and their allies, and I know that when voices are joined in common purpose, they cannot be stopped.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim June 2013 as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month. I call upon the people of the United States to eliminate prejudice everywhere it exists, and to celebrate the great diversity of the American people.

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

BARACK OBAMA

The Replacements

When you join the Foreign Service, before you go overseas for the first time, you are required to take a course called Security Overseas Seminar, or as I have referred to it before, "Scaring Officers (and others) Silly."

Like everyone else in that class, and every SOS class, when I heard that 85% of Foreign Service officers and specialists will be the victim of crime over the course of their career, I vowed to be in the 15% who weren't. And I made it a year and a month after joining...or just two months after taking the class and making that vow...

Eight years ago in April, back when we were in Jerusalem, our apartment was robbed. The computer and cell phone were a pain to replace, but they were replaceable.

Not exactly replaceable were the ring I inherited from my mother and my and my wife's class rings.

My wife gave her class ring to me before we got married. I had stopped wearing it because we had gotten married and exchanged wedding rings, and so it was at home and there for the taking (insert expletives here about those who did it...I am STILL pissed).

I was particularly devastated by the loss of my mother's ring. She had loved that ring and wore it every day. She had always said she wanted me to have it when she died, but neither of us expected it to be while she was still so young.

The second most devastating loss was my wife's ring. I just felt like I had let her down by not having it with me (since she at the time was still stateside in language training).

Fast forward to January or February. My alumni association sends an announcement that it is time to order class rings. And reminds alumni that they too can order that ring they never got around to buying (or couldn't afford) back when they graduated.

And I thought, I wonder if they have my wife's school too. And they did! So I ordered replacements for both our rings...I remember it taking forever when I was in school, and I needed in time for my wife's birthday in May. And they got here in time...in fact, too early. Like March.

And I had to wait to wear my ring so I wouldn't spoil the surprise.

She was surprised. I didn't realize just how badly I continued to feel over it until I saw how much she liked it (and that she has worn it every day since!)

But I was surprised too, because she didn't tell me until she got it just how much it meant to her. Turns out she had worn it every day since graduating until she gave it to me. She gave it to me because it meant something, because I meant something. She was devastated, but didn't say anything because she knew how I felt about my mother's ring. she didn't want to add insult to injury.

She says I can never say she isn't romantic and sensitive ever again. Fair point.

And so basically everything that was taken has been replaced, except for my mother's ring. But I still have her memory. They can't take that.

Remembering on Memorial Day

Remembering others who died while serving. Thanks to an FS friend who posted this picture. 

Yep, That Time Again

Well, not exactly, but close.

This summer is when we bid for the first time in years. Four years to be exact, three for my wife. Three or four blissful, awesome years...are coming to an end.

I checked, and my last post on bidding (or at least that I tagged with bidding...I am too lazy to actually look) was in 2010. It has been awesome!

Because bidding sucks.

If you search bidding and the Foreign Service, you will find very few folks who like the process. One compared it with being asked to the prom, and whether or not you get asked by your number one crush or have to take the second, third or twentieth down the list. Does she like me? I mean, really like me?

Now we have a new tool, which simultaneously makes bidding easier and harder and extends the bidding period indefinitely. It is called "projected vacancies."

We have always had it, but you had to really want to search in order to use it. Because it only existed for each bureau on their web page, IF you could find it (unless you are bidding on posts beginning with A, I or P, in which case you are greeted with flashing signs "BID HERE!"). Lots of bureaus didn't have it at all.

Now it is all in one lovely, horrible place.

Which means instead of waiting until the bid list comes out in August-ish, we can start searching NOW. And getting disappointed NOW. And fretting NOW.

And wondering if the only way to be posted together, or get promoted, or get a decent onward, is to look at those posts beginning with A, I or P. Not that we are unwilling to serve there (seriously, we volunteered for Jerusalem when that was THE place...now it is like, yeah but what have you done for us lately), just that we have some other career boxes we need to check first.

Sigh.

I am a planner (ENTJ baby)...I like lists and organization. I like being prepared for what comes next....it is a trait that source of perpetual frustration in the Foreign Service, particularly where bidding is concerned, because bidding takes away all ability to plan. Not to be deterred, I already have spreadsheets of overseas and DC positions, places where there are jobs for both of us. Can we try for a stretch...there is a list for that. Should we just go back stateside and then lobby next time? There is a list for that. (though going stateside would make us Fair Share, meaning our next time bidding, we would need to bid at least three hardship posts of 15% or greater in two geographic bureaus, and we don't really want to be Fair Share. Though lots of people are Fair Share and still don't end up in a hardship tour. Because BIDDING hardship and LOBBYING for hardship are not the same thing. In fact, you don't have to lobby for any of your core (at grade and in cone bids)...and if you don't lobby, you won't get them. I only lobbied for this job, not a core because it was a stretch position. None of my core bids gave me a second glance. Nor did I want them to.

The bad thing about the "projected vacancies" is that they aren't necessarily REAL. I have already found two positions I thought looked promising (one I thought would be our #1) that won't be on the list at all. the incumbent extended.

So we are looking for hardships, hopefully in Europe so that can be my major bureau, maybe in South Central Asia (so we could maybe get a language in common that isn't a single country language), or maybe even Asia (did she really just mention Vietnam??). 

And we are looking at DC (the ultimate hardship, but it doesn't count!). 

And we are trying not to look at posts that begin with A, I or P.

Better Than Drinking Your Troubles Away...

My dad sent me an email asking if I was okay because he hadn't gotten an email or seen a blog post from me  in over a week. So I figured I should write something.

The truth is that work has been, well, work lately. Some times are less rewarding that others, and I seem to be in one of those times. It doesn't help that bidding season is rapidly approaching and bidding as a tandem is hard. I am working on a post about that in my head, but suffice it to say, one of the many things I was excited about when coming here was that it meant four years of not having to bid. Sadly, that is coming to an end.

So to deal with the work issues and the impending bidding doom, we have decided that we need to go somewhere at least once a month, at least for a long weekend.

So last month was a long weekend in Paris. This month, last weekend in fact, was a long weekend in Riga and an afternoon on the way back in the Estonian beach town of Pärnu.

Going to Riga has lots of advantages. It is close...just four hours...and is similar yet different.

But the biggest bonus is we have lots of friends there. My wife's first boss is there. One friend from A-100 is there as is the wife of another A-100 classmate (the classmate is in Afghanistan). There there is a friend from area studies, and another who used to work with my wife on the Russia desk.

And I have said before that when the Foreign Service dream job is being more of a job and less of a dream, it is friends we have made in the service that keep us here. That remains true.

Next month, we are taking a week to hit Norway, plus my inlaws and friends from A-100 will visit. In July, we will take a long weekend to a yet undecided location, and then it will be two weeks in Scotland in August or September. Hopefully sometime in there, my dad will visit (and maybe even convince my stepmother to come along!) And by then, the bid list should have been submitted and the real angst can begin!

This is the location of what Latvia claims was the first Christmas tree...which of course came some 60 years after the REAL first Christmas tree...in Tallinn.

I took this in honor of my favorite post from The Bloggess....Knock knock, Mother F*cker.

Blackheads House...a bit larger and grander than Tallinn's. But we still had the first Christmas tree.

International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia

May 16, 2013 

PRESS RELEASE: U.S. EMBASSY FLIES RAINBOW FLAG ON MAY 17 FOR THE INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST HOMOPHOBIA AND TRANSPHOBIA

To mark the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia (IDAHO), the U.S. Embassy in Tallinn on May 17 will display the rainbow flag on the Embassy building at Kentmanni 20, Tallinn. IDAHO is an annual event celebrated internationally to counter homophobia and raise awareness of the human rights discrimination faced by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) individuals.

“Flying the flag,” Ambassador Levine said, “is a simple statement of our support for the LGBT community and its struggle for equal rights.” Noting the substantial progress being made, Ambassador Levine added that “much of the world has come to understand that sexual orientation is not a choice, that who you love is not a political statement and that personal prejudices, not matter how strongly felt, cannot be used to deny equal protection under the law. IDAHO is a day to celebrate acceptance.”

This year, IDAHO will be observed in almost 90 countries. In Estonia, the Estonian LGBT union will mark the day with events in Tallinn and Tartu, including a panel discussion at 14:00 in Tallinn on the proposed partnership law. The panel discussion will be opened by Ambassador Levine.

MJ: The Truth About Attacks on Our Diplomats

Mother Jones has an interesting piece about attacks on diplomats overseas and Republican claims that we are attacked because we are "projecting weakness" rather than advocating for "peace through strength."

The article says: "But behind the comparisons to Jimmy Carter and the references to "peace through strength" is a dubious policy critique: not just that Obama is Carter and Romney is Reagan, but that somehow sufficient man-musk from an American president can dissuade any potential terrorist from laying his finger on an American diplomat."

It goes on to say: "Having Ronald Reagan in office didn't mean an end to attacks on US diplomatic targets. Despite Reagan’s refrain of "peace through strength," several high-profile attacks on US diplomatic facilities occurred on his watch, including the bombing of the US embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, by Islamic militants. Twice. According to the Global Terrorism Database compiled by the University of Maryland National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), attacks on American diplomatic targets actually rose during Reagan's term—before beginning to subside in the mid-1990s."

[...]

The decline is probably not because terrorists were intimidated by Bill Clinton more than they were by George H.W. Bush. Two of the worst terrorist attacks on American diplomatic targets, Al Qaeda's bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, happened on Clinton's watch. It does however, make the Romney campaign's claim that having a Republican in office will frighten terrorists out of striking at American diplomats or staging violent protests at American embassies extremely dubious. The UMd. database lists 64 attacks on American diplomatic targets during the George W. Bush administration, including car bombs at the US embassy in Yemen and armed attackers assaulting a US consulate in Saudi Arabia."

The article interviews former Ambassador to Pakistan Wendy Chamberlin, who says that everyone who signs up for this job knows the risks involved. She is right. And we take those risks because we know that representing America overseas, engaging with people who like us or don't like us, makes us safer at home. This is the point of what we do.

It is galling that the attack in Benghazi is being used for political points. Where were all of these investigations into all of the attacks on our embassy before President Obama took office? Where was the concern for our security when Congress cut our security budget?

The truth is that Chris is dead. Sean and Anne are dead. Any of us could be next. Our memorial plaque at Main State lists the names of the hundreds who have died in the line of duty while serving the country in the Foreign Service. More Ambassadors have died in the line of duty than have Generals and Admirals combined. Our work is dangerous. We know that. We also know that there are some things that could make it less dangerous, but they involve funding security not searching for a cover-up that didn't happen.

And even with adequate security, our job, if we do it properly, will still be dangerous. People will still die for their country.

But how about when it happens again, and it will happen again regardless of which party holds the White House, thank us for our service, make certain, as the review panel already did, that we did everything we could to prevent it or fix what allowed it to happen. But that is not what the current "investigation" is doing. They are looking for political points to harm this administration or perhaps Secretary Clinton's chances at the next one.

And that dishonors us all.

May Kind of Sucks

May is one of my least favorite months.

Of sure, it starts off and ends great (Dad's birthday at the start, and my wife's birthday at the end). And it is spring, so you finally start getting decent weather in May.

But then there is Mother's Day.

And with Mother's Day, all the accompanying posts from people about how awesome their mothers are. Are, not were. And all the pictures of those folks with their moms. Current pictures, not old ones. Not more than a decade.

I miss my mother every day, and sixteen years on, this hasn't changed.

Mother's Day feels like a giant neener neener from the world about how lucky everyone is to have their mothers with them.

And the truth is, I mourn for more than just my mom on Mother's Day. Because I was lucky enough to come from and know generations of awesome women. I was close to both of my grandmothers and to my great grandmother as well. Awesome, strong, intelligent women. Women who never told me there were limits to what I could do. Women who have all passed on, most recently my mom's mother three years ago. In our grief for my mom, we became like surrogate mother and daughter for each other.

So Mother's Day sucks.

But then, I get hit with the other whammies...both my mom's and her mom's birthdays come right after Mother's Day.

So with all the birthdays (my niece's birthday is in May too), May used to be a month of being really happy but kind of broke from buying presents.

Now May is a month of being sad. Thankful for what I had, yes, but sad because the loss is still there.

After my mom died, a friend told me "It never hurts less, it just hurts less often."

Yeah, that.

PRESIDENTIAL MESSAGE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS DAY, MAY 3, 2013

 

The White House

Washington

I send greetings to all those celebrating Foreign Affairs Day 2013 at the Department of State, the United States Agency for International Development, and our Embassies, Consulates, and missions around the world.

Today, we honor Foreign and Civil Service professionals who are the backbone of American diplomacy and development efforts. From strengthening our alliances and forging strategic partnerships to preventing violent conflicts and halting the spread of deadly weapons, you endeavor to promote democracy and security, guard against disease and poverty, and champion human rights while fostering mutual understanding between peoples. Your impact is lasting and your work embodies the ideals that have made our Nation a beacon to the world.

On Foreign Affairs Day, we honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country. We solemnly remember Anne T. Smedinghoff, a Foreign Service Officer, who was killed in Afghanistan on April 6, 2013, as well as the four men who lost their lives on September 11, 2012, in the terrorist attack in Benghazi, Libya: Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Information Management Specialist Sean Patrick Smith, and Security Agents Ty Woods and Glen A. Doherty. We also remember Ragaei Said Abdelfattah, a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for International Development, who was killed in Afghanistan on August 8, 2012.

As we continue to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, during which hundreds of Foreign Service Officers served, we also pay special tribute to two former officers today: Joseph Gregory Fandino, a Foreign Service Officer who died in the line of duty in Vietnam on June 27, 1972, and Francis J. Savage, a Foreign Service Officer with the United States Agency for International Development who died on March 17, 1967, of wounds inflicted by a June 1965 Viet Cong bombing.

The names of these eight devoted individuals will join those of 236 other Foreign Service members on the Memorial Plaque, forever honoring their legacy of service to the country they loved.

I join Secretary Kerry in saluting the Foreign Service members who have given their lives in service to our Nation. I offer my thanks to all members of the diplomatic service and their families for their selfless contributions to making our world more peaceful, prosperous, and secure for all.

Barack Obama

Remarks by Secretary of State John Kerry at the American Foreign Service Association Memorial Plaque Ceremony

Each year on Foreign Affairs Day, we unveil the memorial plaque where the names of those who died in the line of duty that year are inscribed. I couldn't be there this year to see Chris' name added along with the names of the others who died in the service of our country, but I was there in spirit. We miss you all.

The picture of the plaque was taken by JL, a friend from J'lem, who was able to attend the ceremony The remarks were made by Secretary Kerry at the event.

SECRETARY KERRY: Susan, thank you very much for your stewardship and that of AFSA, and a welcome to all of the extended members of the State Department family. We are deeply appreciative for everybody taking part in this ceremony as we mourn and we commemorate and we celebrate our fallen brothers and sisters in service. I want to welcome CIA Director Brennan, USAID Administrator Shah, and of course, the Vice President of the United States. And I also want to thank all of the leadership of the State Department that are here with us today, obviously.

The most important thank you that we can all give – and we do – is to the family members. I know this is a mixed day. It’s a hard day. It’s a day that brings back pain, but it’s also a day, I hope, of comfort and of pride in knowing that the contributions and the memories of your loved ones are a permanent part of the State Department, as strong as the marble which will carry their names for eternity.

Today we add eight names to our wall of honor, eight people who dedicated their lives to service. And to a person, each one sought out the most difficult assignments. They understood the risks, and still they raised their hands and they said: “Send me.”

Anne Smedinghoff was just 25 years old when she was killed in Zabul province, Afghanistan. I met her on my trip to Afghanistan, about a week before her death. And I remember her face – her permanent smile – cutting through the chaos and the crowd. That’s exactly where Anne wanted to be, right in the thick of it. And she was killed carrying out a mission of hope, bringing books to Afghan children, who had no connection to her, but who she believed deserved the chance to improve their lives.

Ambassador Chris Stevens, who was killed in the terrorist attack at our diplomatic post in Benghazi, on September 11, 2012. Through all of the tributes and the memorials after his death, we have learned so much about who Chris was as a person and about his skill as a diplomat. Everyone felt like he was a personal friend. And in fact, for those of us on the Foreign Relations Committee, he was, because he worked there at one time. One Peace Corps volunteer even visited the town in Morocco where Chris served almost 30 years earlier. And the volunteer met a young Moroccan, who not only remembered the first words Chris taught him in English, but he said that Chris inspired him to become an English teacher himself.

Sean Smith was killed in the same attack as Ambassador Stevens. He was serving literally as a one-man band to keep the Benghazi post running. He was Information Management Officer, Financial Management Officer, Management Officer in general. And Sean, throughout his career, went places that other people didn’t. He was the first to volunteer for Haiti after the earthquake, the first to volunteer for Japan after the Fukushima disaster. And so of course, he stepped up to serve in Benghazi. But with as much time and passion as he devoted to work, he also built a very rich network of friends. His love for the San Diego Chargers was legendary – as were his Super Bowl parties – and he was an accomplished online gamer. He leaves behind his wife, Heather, two young children. And I hope they know how much we are all diminished by Sean’s loss.

Today we also honor two true warriors – both trained Navy SEALs, both fierce patriots with loving hearts. Ty Woods and Glen Doherty died defending the U.S. annex in Benghazi. And thanks to their bravery and their sacrifice, 30 Americans escaped the attack. Thirty Americans are alive today because of Ty and Glen.

Ty Woods was a guy who was always looking for a challenge, always waiting for the phone to ring and for the next big mission. Even though he got a scholarship to wrestle for the University of Oregon, Ty joined the SEALs at 18 because he thought it was the biggest challenge that he could set for himself. He earned a Bronze Star and a Combat V, but he also had a healer’s touch, and he eventually became a registered nurse and a certified paramedic. Over the years, he become an instructor and a mentor to younger SEALs, even after he retired from the Navy and began defending our embassies. Ty’s close-knit group of friends still miss him deeply, as do we. And our thoughts are with his wife, Dorothy, and their infant son.

Glen Doherty protected our diplomatic posts around the globe from Iraq to Afghanistan, and finally, to Libya. According to his SEAL buddies, Glen was, without a doubt, the most liked man you could ever hope to meet. Whether he was skiing or surfing, running or rafting, Glen always wanted to be doing something and always wanted to be connecting with other people. He wanted to be the man in the arena, the “doer of deeds,” as Teddy Roosevelt said. And Glen actually carried that famous speech with him for years as an inspiration. It spoke to the part of him that wanted to protect people and ultimately led him to sacrifice himself defending others. Glen was from my home state of Massachusetts, and I’ll never forget how the people of Boston came out to honor him, thousands of people standing watch in the street as his casket came by.

Ragaei Abdelfattah. He was killed during a suicide attack in Afghanistan last August while working for USAID. He was Egyptian by birth, but his friends and family called him the biggest flag-waving American they ever knew. He loved bad chain restaurants, bad romantic comedies, and dark chocolate, which is always good. Throughout his life, Ragaei demonstrated a deep passion for helping people develop their full potential. In fact, after finishing his first year in Afghanistan – his first tour that is – he promptly signed up for the second because, in his own words he said, “I have more work to do here. One year was not enough.”

Today we also add the names of two Foreign Service officers that we lost more than 40 years ago. It was another time, another war, but their devotion to their work was identical to the six that we lost this past year. Joe Fandino served in the Air Force during the Korean War where he sat on the “black box” during missions, meaning it was his job to blow up the plane if it got into real trouble. So he was a man who understood high-stakes situations. He also had a tremendous sense of humor. On his first Foreign Service posting to the Dominican Republic, he was riding with the Ambassador, who just happened to be his future father-in-law, and the rioters began rocking the car. And the Ambassador asked, “Joe, what do you intend to do if things get really bad?” And Joe didn’t miss a beat. He just leapt up and said, “I’ll jump out of the car, tear off my tie, and yell ‘down with the Americans!’” (Laughter.) Joe’s family and friends cherish those memories of his charm and his ability to cut through the noise. He died in 1972 while serving in Vietnam with USAID.

Frank Savage used to ride his Harley around Europe while wearing a Levi jacket with a big American flag sewn onto the back of it. He was proud of his country, and he wanted everybody to know it. Frank volunteered to serve in Vietnam with USAID, and when he wasn’t on duty, he helped defend a local orphanage from Viet Cong attacks. He was severely injured in the 1965 terrorist bombing of My Canh, the floating restaurant, but after a year, he volunteered to go back. And Frank felt he that had a job to finish, which is characteristic of every single one of these people. Sadly, he became critically ill from his original wounds and he died in Saigon in 1967. So when you look at situations where danger is part of daily life, you actually develop a different perspective about life itself. I remember that from my own tour of duty in Vietnam with the Navy, working alongside men who became my brothers. And we all came back after losing a lot of friends with a saying: Every day is extra.

Anne, Chris, Sean, Ty, Glen, Ragaei, Joe, and Frank didn’t get enough extra days. And their loss still is real and it’s raw. As friends, we miss their joy in living each day to its fullest, whether that was biking across the United States or talking with locals in a Libyan souk or building a replica of the Starship Enterprise entirely out of Legos. They did what made them happy. These were special people.

As a Department, we miss their love of this country, their belief in our work. And for those of us blessed with extra days, let each one of us honor their memory and recommit ourselves to the mission that they loved so much.

I served on the Foreign Relations Committee for 29 years. And for 26 of them, I was privileged to sit near the Vice President of the United States, then the chairman, and even before that, before he was chairman. I don’t think the United States of America has ever had a vice president who knows as much about foreign policy, as much about this Department, or who cares about it as much as Vice President Joseph Biden. And I’m privileged to introduce him to you now, the Vice President of the United States.

Memorial Service for Anne Smedinghoff

From Secretary Kerry:

"Colleagues: I don’t think any of us will ever forget where we were or what we were doing on April 6th when we learned that Anne Smedinghoff had been killed in Afghanistan. It was my most difficult day as Secretary, and the weight of knowing that three U.S. service members were also killed, and several other Mission Afghanistan colleagues injured, was something all of us felt quite profoundly and, frankly, we all still feel it today. We feel it especially this week as we gather to add new names to the Memorial Wall here at State.

One of the things, though, that has made me most proud of everyone who makes up our incredible State Department and USAID family, is the way in which we pull together when tragedy strikes. I’ve seen and felt it in the way people volunteered to help Anne’s family during the worst time any parent could ever imagine, in the many memorial efforts to honor her at Embassy Kabul, or in the quiet acts of keeping faith that so many of you took part in these last weeks, leaving flowers and cards and personal notes remembering Anne downstairs near the place on the wall which will bear her name. For so many, there’s been a “there but for the grace of God go I” sentiment in how everyone saw in Anne’s idealism and her courage just a little bit of who we’d all like to be, and more than a little bit of a reminder that in this dangerous world that calls on foreign service professionals, the risks are always with us.

As all of you know, I met Anne in Kabul, and I was touched by her spirit, her work ethic, and her idealism. That’s what we need to celebrate this week. We all grieve in our own ways. But one of the things I’ve learned as someone who lost close friends at a young age in a war, and in many years as a Senator when I met with many families of the fallen from Massachusetts, is that even as we struggle to wrestle with their deaths, and to make sense of questions that only God can answer, that we need to celebrate their lives and their examples. Only we the living can help honor the qualities and the energy that people like Anne shared with us, and that’s important – in fact, perhaps most when someone is taken from us far too young, it matters that we remember the good times of young lives lived with great energy.

What I hope we can do this week is celebrate Anne’s life together. ....I ask you to help remember Anne by joining me and Anne’s family – Tom, Mary Beth, Mark, Regina, and Joan – at a memorial service that will celebrate her and honor her ideals."

The ceremony will be closed to the press at her family’s request, but if you are part of the State Department community, you can watch it via BNET at bnet.state.gov/meetings.asx or later on BNET’s Video-on-Demand archive.

GovExec: Foreign Service Veterans Seek to Dispel the Myths

Government Executive had a great piece yesterday about an American Foreign Service Association organized meeting between veteran members of the Foreign Service and the folks up on Capital Hill to dispel notions of diplomats as pin-striped cookie-pushers living cushy lives.

The article includes quotes from Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agency's president Ken Kero-Metz about his time in the service.

Kero-Metz "described his harrowing experiences in Brazil and war-torn Iraq. In Rio de Janeiro, “crime was through the roof and I got carjacked twice,” he said, adding that police allowed foreigners to speed through traffic lights in high-crime areas.

“Baghdad was the wild west, with no rules,” Kero-Mentz said. Placed in charge of helping rebuild the Iraqi national assembly building in just six months, he was given a helmet, a flak jacket and a white Honda (American cars draw too much attention), along with a pistol “to use on myself if I got captured.”

It would be nice to think that after the deaths of Ambassador Chris Stevens, Anne Smedinghoff and Mustafa Akarsu, as well as numerous others, we wouldn't have to remind Congress how dangerous and important our work is. But we still do.

You can read the whole piece here.

The Lavender Scare

Times change, thankfully.

This year is the 60th anniversary of The Lavender Scare. Sixty years ago today, on April 27, 1953, President Eisenhower signed an executive order outlawing the employment of LGBT people in the federal government. This set off a 30-year witch-hunt where thousands were fired from their jobs just for being gay. Many committed suicide rather than being exposed to their families.

A few brave souls, like Frank Kameny(who I was lucky enough to meet shortly before he passed away in 2011) fought back and it is due in no small part to people like him that we have some of the protections we do today.

But LGBT people like me still face risks in employment. Sexual orientation could used as a reason to strip someone's security clearance until 1992 (and President George W. Bush briefly attempted to quietly weaken the Clinton's removal of sexual orientation as a reason to revoke someone's clearance by changing the wording of the order from could not be the reason for denial of a security clearance to could not be the sole reason for denial of a security clearance. The original language was restored pretty quickly.)

And it wasn't until Secretary Clinton took office that same-sex partners were treated at least somewhat like opposite sex partners. I still couldn't get insurance for my wife if she weren't employed by the Department, and she still couldn't get expedicious naturalization if she weren't American. But at least now, she could be on my orders, work at post, be evacuated from post, and get a band-aid at the nurses office. So some things are better.

But we are the lucky ones. It is still legal in 29 states to fire someone just because they are gay or lesbian. That number rises to 34 if they are transsexual. Which for mean for us, there is no safe employment in my home state of SC. I could be the best employee at a company and they could decide to fire me at any point just for being gay. Like the teacher in Ohio who was fired after 19 years because her partner was mentioned in an obit when the teacher's mother died. Some anonymous parent alerted the school...such bravery, such conviction, to destroy a woman's life without even revealing your name. (Thankfully, other parents and students are fighting to have her re-instated...she is much loved at her school.)

This is why, as Josh Howard, the director of an upcoming documentary about the Lavender Scare, commented in his editorial for the Human Rights Campaign, that the story of the Lavender Scare is just as relevant today as it was then.

That is why while we are thankful for how much better things are now, we must still fight for full equality for LGBT citizens.

Visiting the Witches Well

Spring is coming. It is warming up, and today was sunny, so that meant it was time to get out of the house.

Estonia has five seasons: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter and Flooding. We are in the latter, the 5th season, where all the snow is melting and all the rivers and streams are flooded.

When that happens, a well known as the "Witches’ Well", located about 30 minutes outside of Tallinn on the way to Tartu, occasionally begins to "boil" over (the last time was spring of 2008). Local legend holds that the well boils over when the witches of Tuhala make a sauna below the ground and beat each other with birch branches, causing a commotion on the surface.

The real reason is that well is near the Tuhala River, a 26 km long branch of the Pirita River. Some 6 km of its length runs underground. Water starts to spout up from the well and flood the area when excess water from the Mahtra swamp fills up the underground river and the overflowing river water seeks an escape through the well. The quantity of water flowing through the Tuhala River must be at least 5000 liters per second in order for the river to overflow, which only happens during the early part of the thaw.

Of course, it is possible that the thaw that causes the boiling is the result of the heat from the underground witches' sauna...

Another Box Checked

You know what is great about the Foreign Service?

I mean other than, you know, serving the country, hopefully making a difference in the world, and all that stuff.

You also get to check off stuff from your bucket list.

I've already checked off bunches...like seeing Stonehenge (okay, that was before the service), the pyramids in Egypt, Pompeii, the Sistine Chapel, the Hagia Sofia, Petra...and there are more. (My wife likes to point out that all of these things also happened after I met her, including Stonehenge...so give credit where you may. The Foreign Service does make it easier.)

And this weekend, I checked off one more.

Paris!

Living in Europe means you get to lots of cool places that seemed like once in a lifetime, except now they are  what you do on a long weekend.So this past weekend, we took a day off and headed to Paris.

We got to visit all those places that are on the standard Paris list...

The Eiffel Tower...

The Louvre...

Notre Dame...

 The Arch de Triumph...

Plus I got to experience a taste of Paris in the spring. I need to go back.

Presidents are breaking the U.S. Foreign Service

Here is a great piece in the Washington Post, Presidents are breaking the U.S. Foreign Service, authored by AFSA President Susan Johnson, former U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, and American Academy of Diplomacy President Ronald E. Neumann, and AAD Board Chairman and former U.S. Undersecretary of State Thomas R. Pickering.

They write:

"What is wrong at State, the U.S. Agency for International Development, our embassies and other agencies that together are the vehicles for American diplomacy? What accounts for the Foreign Service being marginalized?

The most visible factor is the overwhelming — and growing — presence of political appointees in mid-level and top leadership positions at the State Department. For all their merit, political appointees are short-term officials, subject to partisan, ­personality-specific pressures. They do not notably contribute to the institution’s longer-term vitality, and their ascension creates a system inherently incapable of providing expert, nonpartisan foreign policy advice.

When the bulk of its leadership positions are held by transient appointees, the Foreign Service is undermined. This situation spawns opportunism and political correctness, weakens esprit de corps within the service and emaciates institutional memory.

Diplomatic capacity needs professional, institutional leadership. A career service must nurture a deep bench of high-quality professional diplomats. But the trend has been in the opposite direction. Since 1975, the number of top leadership positions at the State Department, defined as deputy secretaries, undersecretaries and assistant secretaries, has increased from 18 to 33. The share filled by career Foreign Service officers has fallen from 61 percent in 1975 to 24 percent in 2012. Only five of the 35 special envoys, representatives, advisers and coordinators appointed during President Obama’s first term were Foreign Service officers."

You can read the whole piece here.

Being a Foreign Service Officer Became Much, Much Harder After 9/11

In the wake of Anne Smedinghoff's death in Afghanistan, attention is once again being paid to the difficulties and dangers of being a Foreign Service Officer.

The Atlantic has a piece talking about how our work has changed since 9/11.

The piece includes an interview with Nicholas Kralev, author of the book America's Other Army: The U.S. Foreign Service and 21st Century Diplomacy. Kralev was asked:

What kind of personalities succeed best in the Foreign Service?

He answered: "You need to be very adaptable, to enjoy living in foreign countries and change them every three years at the most, to be good at foreign languages and know how to operate in foreign cultures, and in unfamiliar and sometimes dangerous environments. You also have to be a self-learner and a quick study, because training in the service is minimal and proper professional development doesn't even exist. More specifically, you have to be an excellent writer, analyst, negotiator, advocate and communicator, with broad knowledge and understanding of how the host country works, and have ability to quickly acquire basic expertise in a new field. It helps to be good at entrepreneurship and innovation."

You can read the whole piece here.

Mourning Another Loss

Yesterday, Anne Smedinghoff, a second tour Junior Officer, was killed in one of two attacks in Kandahar, Afghanistan that also claimed the lives of three service members, and two other civilians. She was heading out to deliver books to schoolchildren.

Diplomacy is dangerous. Please remember that it is not just soldiers in war zones. Sometimes it is a young woman trying to help educate and hopefully make the next generation of Afghans less hostile to America than some previous generations have been.

Below is a statement from Secretary Kerry:

Our State Department family is grieving over the loss of one of our own, an exceptional young Foreign Service officer, killed today in an IED attack in Zabul province, along with service members, a Department of Defense civilian, and Afghan civilians. Four other State Department colleagues suffered injuries, one critically.

Our American officials and their Afghan colleagues were on their way to donate books to students in a school in Qalat, the province’s capital, when they were struck by this despicable attack.

Just last week in Kabul, I met our fallen officer when she was selected to support me during my visit to Afghanistan. She was everything a Foreign Service officer should be: smart, capable, eager to serve, and deeply committed to our country and the difference she was making for the Afghan people. She tragically gave her young life working to give young Afghans the opportunity to have a better future.

We also honor the U.S. troops and Department of Defense civilian who lost their lives, and the Afghan civilians who were killed today as they worked to improve the nation they love.

I spoke this morning with our fallen Foreign Service officer’s mother and father and offered what little comfort I can for their immeasurable loss. As a father of two daughters, I can't imagine what her family is feeling today, or her friends and colleagues.

I also have been in close touch with Secretary Hagel, the White House, and our senior management team at the State Department, including Deputy Secretary Burns, Undersecretary Kennedy, and Ambassador Cunningham in Kabul. We will all keep in close contact as we learn more facts about this attack and the brave people who were killed and wounded. We are also in contact with the families of those injured.

We know too well the risks in the world today for all of our State Department personnel at home and around the world – Foreign Service, civil service, political appointees, locally employed staff, and so many others. I wish everyone in our country could see first-hand the devotion, loyalty, and amazingly hard and hazardous work our diplomats do on the front lines in the world’s most dangerous places. Every day, we honor their courage and are grateful for their sacrifices, and today we do so with great sadness.

And this is a statement from her parents:

The world lost a truly beautiful soul today. Our daughter, Anne, a U.S. Foreign Service Officer, died in the service of her country as she was traveling with a group to deliver books to a local school in the Zabul Province of Afghanistan. She joined the Foreign Service three years ago right out of college and there was no better place for her. Anne absolutely loved the work she was doing. Her first assignment was in Caracas, Venezuela. She then volunteered for an assignment at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, which she began in July, 2012. Working as a public diplomacy officer, she particularly enjoyed the opportunity to work directly with the Afghan people and was always looking for opportunities to reach out and help to make a difference in the lives of those living in a country ravaged by war. We are consoled knowing that she was doing what she loved, and that she was serving her country by helping to make a positive difference in the world. She was such a wonderful woman--strong, intelligent, independent, and loving. Annie, you left us too soon; we love you and we're going to miss you so much.
Tom & Mary Beth Smedinghoff

My Dad Loves Me!

Peeps!!