After 26 years as a career Foreign Service Officer, Ambassador Michael Guest is resigning in protest of State Department rules that discriminate against gay employees and their partners. From the Washington Post:
Within the State Department, gay men and lesbians are widely accepted, in contrast to the military, where an admission of homosexuality is grounds for dismissal. But Guest and others say the State Department’s regulations have not kept pace with the department’s culture, especially as Foreign Service officers overseas face increasing dangers.
For instance, same-sex partners — or unmarried heterosexual partners — are refused anti-terrorism security training or foreign-language training and are not evacuated when eligible family members are ordered to depart. Unlike spouses, they do not receive diplomatic passports, visas or even use of the State Department mail system. They also must pay their own way overseas, get their own medical care and are left to fend for themselves if a partner is sent to a dangerous post such as Iraq.
Many of these rules, Guest said, could be changed with Rice’s signature, which he said was not a matter of gay rights but of equal treatment.
