I honestly thought this was going to be a gay-marriage article or something. In fact, our ambassador, Michael Guest, raises some pretty horrific concerns that Condi Rice outright refused to address:
“For the past three years, I’ve urged the Secretary and her senior management team to redress policies that discriminate against gay and lesbian employees. Absolutely nothing has resulted from this. And so I’ve felt compelled to choose between obligations to my partner — who is my family — and service to my country. That anyone should have to make that choice is a stain on the Secretary’s leadership and a shame for this institution and our country,” he said.Regardless of your position on gay marriage, refusing to provide the partners/spouses of gay ambassadors security training, medical care, and evacuation if the entire country blows up? These people are putting their lives down on the line for our country, in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. Condi Rice should know better. Our country should do better.
Among the inequities cited by Mr. Guest and other gay diplomats: unlike heterosexual spouses, gay partners are not entitled to State Department-provided security training, free medical care at overseas posts, guaranteed evacuation in case of a medical emergency, transportation to overseas posts, or special living allowances when foreign service officers are assigned to places like Iraq, where diplomatic families are not permitted.
