Shame on the State Department

By Eric on December 4, 2007

Today was a shameful day for the Department of State, Secretary Rice, and the Bush Administration. Today, former ambassador Michael Guest, an openly gay man, was forced to leave the job he loved at the State Department because departmental policies prevented him from fulfilling his obligations to his family.

Most departing ambassadors use these events to talk about their successes . . . But I want to talk about my signal failure, the failure that in fact is causing me to leave the career that I love,” said Mr. Guest, 50, whose most recent assignment was dean of the leadership and management school at the Foreign Service Institute, the government’s school for diplomats.

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.

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.

The New York Times summarizes the case of Michael Guest exactly correctly:

Treating gay public servants by different standards than apply to everyone else is unacceptable, especially at a time when all American diplomats and military personnel are being called on to serve — sometimes repeatedly — in war zones like Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s also foolhardy since the two conflicts have put such strain on American resources that personnel shortages are commonplace. The government should be doing everything in its power to retain its best and brightest, beginning with treating them equally.

How can George Bush and the Republicans even utter the phrase “family values” when employees of the Bush administration have to choose between their families and their jobs? It’s one shameful thing for this country to refuse an entire group of people their rights because of who they are, but the fact that George W. Bush’s government is willing to prohibit or make it difficult for gay people to lay down their lives for their countries as soldiers, translate terrorist communications and analye intelligence, or train America’s next generation of diplomats is incredibly negligent of the needs of the country and represents a dereliction of President Bush’s duty to uphold the Constitution and protect the United States.

Tags: LGBT rights, Michael Guest, State Department

• You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Nobody has said anything yet. Why don't you?

Respond