WASHINGTON — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton will soon announce that gay American diplomats will be given benefits similar to those that their heterosexual counterparts enjoy, U.S. officials said Saturday.
In a notice to be sent soon to State Department employees, Clinton says regulations that denied same-sex couples and their families the same rights and privileges that straight diplomats enjoyed are "unfair and must end," as they harm U.S. diplomacy.
"Providing training, medical care and other benefits to domestic partners promote the cohesiveness, safety and effectiveness of our posts abroad," she says in the message, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press.
"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," she says.
"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," Clinton says.
Among the benefits that will now be granted gay diplomats: the right of domestic partners to hold diplomatic passports, government-paid travel for their partners and families to and from foreign posts, and the use of U.S. medical facilities abroad.
In addition, gay diplomats' families will now be eligible for U.S. government emergency evacuations and training courses at the Foreign Service Institute, the message says.
The announcement, expected this week, was provided to the AP by a State Department official who is a member of the Gays and Lesbians in Foreign Affairs Agencies organization. Two department officials not affiliated with the organization confirmed its accuracy.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the changes.
Previously, the State Department had withheld some benefits from the families of gay diplomats, citing the Defense of Marriage Law, which had restricted federal recognition of same-sex marriages.
One former ambassador, Michael Guest, resigned from the foreign service in 2007 to protest the restrictions. Guest was a part of the Obama administration's State Department transition team and played a major role in lobbying for the changes.
Clinton told members of Congress last week that she would soon announce the revisions.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/05/23/gay-us-diplomats-to-recei_n_207...
Giuseppe Zanotti
These domestic partners, have they entered into a state recognised civil union? I can see some wise guy claiming his girlfriend of the moment a "domestic partner", and demanding the same rights as gay couples.
1Am I the only one that is a little miffed that this is only limited to diplomats? Or I'm I not looking at it right.. perhaps this is a step in a new direction? And will eventually spread out to all same sex domestic partnerships?
2Kimpossible, I'm guessing that they just don't have the authority to extend it further or else they would.
Grandpa, do all states now offer civil unions? That's a good question.
3It is a very good question modus, I should hope so. There was a situation about 10 years ago, when my friends mom became a victim of not being married, or in a civil union. She and the man she lived with for over 30 years in Pennsylvania, without any certificate, was prevented from seeing her companion after he fell into a coma. The hospital told her only relatives would be allowed in. That was bad enough, but her partner made it clear to all their friends, that he wanted his companion to have the house to live in as long as she lived. This man's son comes up from Florida, who had not seen his father, for those 30 years, and who did not make it to the funeral, got a court order claiming the estate as sole surviving relative. Then evicted her. She was in her late 70's at the time. MAKE A WILL folks, and update it as necessary. I can add two more instances in NYC, where a man divorced his wife, remarried, and never changed his beneficiary on his pension, which he declared in the first year of city employment. In each case the courts held that the person who is named the beneficiary and only that person can claim the pension if the person dies while still a city employee. They have tightened that up, they now send out pension statements to employees, now yearly, something they had never done earlier. Oh and if you want to change the name of your beneficiary, you better have a marriage certificate for that new beneficiary.
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