05/25/2009
Hillary Clinton Notifies State Dept. of Forthcoming Changes for Gays
Gay and lesbian State Department employees and their partners will soon receive benefits equal to those of their heterosexual counterparts, according to a draft memo written by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton:
"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."
The benefits include use of foreign medical facilities, diplomatic passports, government-paid travel for spouses and families, and eligibility for foreign training courses and emergency evacuations.
A report on the memo from CNN and the difficulties the changes may come up against,
AFTER THE JUMP...
Posted 5:21 PM EST by Andy Towle in Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, News | Permalink
Like it?
Subscribe to FREE Towleroad daily headlines with our RSS feed!
RECENT STORIES:
Comments
You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.
Good on her! After all the complaints by gays about the Clintons and the DADT garbage, this shows where her heart is at. She beat Obama to the punch in actually accomplishing something for the gay community. I am glad i supported her in the primaries.
Posted by: candideinnc | May 25, 2009 5:27:42 PM
Good for her!
"I am glad i supported her in the primaries."
Me too, Candideinnc.
Posted by: stephen k | May 25, 2009 5:44:08 PM
Beat Obama to the punch?
Obama is Hillary's boss. Obama had the final say so on this recommendation and ultimately had to sign off on it before Hillary Clinton did anything.
Which still doesn't sit right with me, by the way, that he's willing to allow Hillary to be the public face but then again, this is the State Department and he delegated it to her. So all in all it's proper.
Posted by: Chitown Kev | May 25, 2009 5:48:09 PM
Exactly Chitown, Hillary didn't do anything Obama didn't sign off on. Government 101.
Posted by: Stan | May 25, 2009 6:13:47 PM
"Hillary didn't do anything Obama didn't sign off on".....
Maybe yes, maybe no. The point is none of us are in a position to KNOW exactly how that works.
In any case it's a good thing, but wait till the Obamoonies from Queerty arrive here to screech that:
She's still the AntiChristess no matter what good she does for gays, and
He's still Christ Reborn despite the fact that [prior to the assumption of his involvement in this policy change] he's done nothing new of substance for gays since taking office and his administration will not defend DADT discharges in court.
Posted by: Leland Frances | May 25, 2009 6:32:02 PM
I commend Mrs. Clinton of her actions and hope that this is just the first step in a domino effect of DOMA and DADT being knocked down in time for June's Stonewall anniversary.
Obama (and the Clintons) are very political folk and it would be wonderful showmanship on their part to have these historic events all dovetail.
Hey, a lad can dream can't he?
Posted by: ichabod | May 25, 2009 6:40:02 PM
So, is this the beginning of the end for DOMA?
Posted by: Tyler | May 25, 2009 6:46:10 PM
Ms. Leland,
I am not going to bust out your age but you know better than that. You know how these things (usually) work
1) The request for the policy change was already put out there by Congresswoman Tammy Baldwin and another Rep.
2) Hillary looked at (either on her own or at the directive of the White House), ironed out any difficulties.
3) She called Obama up and said this is what I want to do and why and he said, "Go ahead." That's all Obama needs to do in the situation, really.
In terms of State Dept. personnel matters (and this is a personnel matter) I would suspect that Hillary has the widest possible latitude. But she does need an OK and a signature.
This works the same way that it does with any other company or corporation.
And granted, this isn't all that much in the substance department. And Obama still seems not to want his hands on anything that has to do with teh gays.
Posted by: Chitown Kev | May 25, 2009 6:51:27 PM
CNN is as usual clueless. DOMA has nothing to to with what's going on here. As "Outrage" demonstrates (to the jaw-dropping surprise of breeders everywhere) Washington D.C. is The Gayest Place on Earth. That’s why during Bush I when Mike Signorile outed Pete Williams — under-secretary to Darth Cheney — it was in order to make the point that gay state department employees already had job protections that weren’t available to the cannon fodder they were shipping off to Gulf War I.
A never-acknowledged “Stop Loss” was in effect back then, with the Pentagon knowingly sending gay and lesbian personnel overseas then firing their asses the moment they got back home.
Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman made a teriffic documentary about the U.S. during Gulf I entitled "Where Are We?" that deals with this situation, among others.
This “Partner Plan” is simply a continuation of already long-extant policy, and will have no effect on Obama’s unspeakably mendacious attitude toward the GLBT community that elected him thanks to his promises of “fierce” support for our causes.
Like I keep telling you people — he’s Bush Lite !
Posted by: David Ehrenstein | May 25, 2009 7:35:10 PM
Actually, I think it is has significant substance, however small the actual numbers it might apply to, as well as the symbolic importance of the federal government recognizing and applying powers and resources to benefit same gender relationships in these circumstances....approaching the edge of violating federal DOMA Section 3, possibly directly violating it if State Department policies in this regard refer to "spouse" or "married."
The partner of Michael Guest when Guest was ambassador to Romania had none of the special protections afforded the partner of a straight ambassador would have had in that rabidly homophobic country. 68% of Romanians think being gay is wrong, and last week was the fourth homohating demonstration in as many years. Though . . . wait for it . . . EVEN THEY allow gays in their military!
Posted by: Leland Frances | May 25, 2009 7:39:51 PM
truth be told, hillary has been given free rein. she has been more frank in speaking her mind about foreign policy toward china, iran, iraq, afghanistan... than any other diplomat would dare. i don't think obama has the cojones to go against her wishes. the leftist liberals (i am among them) have been seething over obama's back-pedaling on releasing more incriminating photos of prisoner abuse at gitmo, his reluctance to prosecute the torturers and the ones who orchestrated the abuse, his flip-flop on military tribunals, and his inaction on the dismissal of gay military personnel. frankly, he has pissed off too many people to rebuff hillary on this. he was hamstrung.
i was among those who pleaded for more time for the young president, but what is the down side to an honest stop-loss program mitigating the hemorrhaging of military talent? patience is a virtue up to a point. what happens to a raisin in the sun, obama?
Posted by: nic | May 25, 2009 8:58:52 PM
@Nic
You may be right about the political realities that are facing Obama now. It's not simply LGBT, it's a host of things on the progressive agenda.
And let's not forget about that little attachment to a bill about guns in national parks, which he is going to sign.
I doubt that Hillary's rein is THAT free but anything that can stop the hemorraging (sp?) then, yes, it seems reasonable that Obama would go along with it.
Posted by: Chitown Kev | May 25, 2009 10:30:56 PM
did miss log cabinette say that gays are afforded equal rights by the constitution under the "pretense" of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness? with friends like her, why do we need enemies. the log cabinettes are frienemies, at best.
Posted by: nic | May 25, 2009 10:33:29 PM
Kev,
I think Obama knew about this long before it was announced. According to the NYT, Hillary has a "working lunch" with Obama every Thursday that they're both in Washington.
What else is she going to talk about? The kids?
Hillary doesn't strike me as the sort who cares much for irrelevant small talk. That's one of most significance differences between her and Bill. He likes to dazzle the dinner guests with stories. She gets right down to business.
Posted by: John | May 26, 2009 12:01:41 AM
And by implication, Obama either (1) explicitly approved this or (2) didn't bother to object when Hillary brought it up at their weekly meeting.
Even if the latter was the case and he didn't outright say "do it," he can't very well punish her for it now. That wouldn't make any sense either from a process POV or a political one. As Nancy Pelosi is finding out, silence always means "yes" when it comes to briefings.
Posted by: John | May 26, 2009 12:17:39 AM
As a serving diplomat whose partner will be affected by these changes, I can tell you that for us, this is an amazing, unexpected, and very, very welcome development.
Currently, my partner is classified as a "Member of Household." That means that at every new post I have to request special permission for him to join me; he gets no assistance in getting a resident's visa in our posted country; he gets significantly less consideration for jobs within the mission than spouses; he has at best limited access to the health unit; he would get no consideration should an evacuation be required; and, while I get reimbursed for shipping our dog, all of his travel is out of our pocket.
Because my partner is a foreign citizen, he won't of course qualify for a diplomatic passport (a very important benefit in and of itself), but almost all the other changes are going to give us a very different experience as we continue to serve overseas.
Posted by: DiploOverseas | May 26, 2009 1:59:07 AM
Kudos to Hillary and the Obama Administration on this.
Posted by: Kugel | May 26, 2009 2:24:28 AM
I am appalled that this policy could be implemented in only one Federal department. Such a policy is long overdue for Federal employees, but in my opinion it should be all inclusive. Policies for Federal employees and Federal retirees need to be uniform across the board. Whether one works for or retired from the State Department or the Department of the Interior, or the Department of Defense, etc., rights and benefits must be equal. We are reaching for a time when all are considered equal, are we not?
Posted by: RetFedEmp | May 26, 2009 7:37:29 AM
Yea, you people keep saying that Obama is the one who made this policy. Yet, you have seen absolutely no evidence of anything of the sort. Actually, Hillary took the SOS job on the condition that she would have ultimate control of all personel matters at the Department. Now thats the truth, keep telling yourselves that Obama is your friend if it makes you feel better. You can't admit you were bamboozled can you?
Posted by: Glennmcgahee | May 26, 2009 9:08:06 AM
Glenn
I don't care how much latitude Hillary has over personnel matters (and I am sure she has more than any previous SOS), if Obama didn't want it done then it wouldn't get done, period.
Posted by: Chitown Kev | May 26, 2009 10:25:58 AM
Thank you,Chitown. I was trying to enter that very same comment but my computer queefed!
And by the way David Ehrnstein, if Obama is nothing more than "Bush-Lite," then wouldn't that make Hillary a two-faced accomplice who lied about HER "fierce support" of gay issues?
Posted by: Q | May 26, 2009 11:02:55 AM
Poor Glenn, still high on the Kool-Aid.
If Obama is so instrumental in this, why is the this only happening in the State Department. Oh, that's right, because the Secretary of STATE made it happen.
Obama signed off on this has no more meaning that a school principal signing off on a curriculum change: the teacher is the one who is actually in the classroom doing the teaching.
Let Obama sign off on gay rights in all the other departments -- and in California -- then I'll be impressed. Until then, thanks to Hillary for actually doing something rather than talk, sign off, and Teleprompt.
Posted by: DefiantOne | May 27, 2009 11:02:31 PM