While the Obama administration continues to fire gay service members, the woman I backed for President does the right thing. I heard this on the evening news tonight.
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.
Posted by sister of ye on May 24, 2009 at 9:55 pm
Let’s hope Obama doesn’t countermand this directive. In an ordinary political world I’d say he wouldn’t dare because it would show his gay supporters how deluded they were to support him. However, Obama has shown that he doesn’t have any problem cr@pping in his followers and expecting them to come back for more. Witness his continuing the Bush policy of discharging gay soldiers even when they have such vital jobs as being Arabic translators.
Posted by bluelyon on May 25, 2009 at 5:39 pm
Yep, I mentioned how the Obama administration was still discharging gay military, so it wouldn’t surprise me either. But I think HRC probably took state with the agreement that she would have autonomy. At least, I hope so!
Posted by stacyx on May 28, 2009 at 1:30 pm
So far, she’s the only one to deliver in the area of fighting for gay rights- on her very first day at State she said she would try to change discriminatory employment policies and it appears she is making good on that promise.