News
Gay Us Diplomats To Get Partner Benefits
In a policy shift, the US State Department will offer equal benefits and protections to same-sex partners of American diplomats, The New York Times reported.
The newspaper said the shift was spelled out
in an internal memorandum Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sent last
week to an association of gay and lesbian foreign service officers.
Clinton
said the policy change addressed an inequity in the treatment of
domestic partners and would help the State Department recruit
diplomats, since many international employers already offered such
benefits, the report said.
"Like all families, our foreign
service families come in different configurations; all are part of the
common fabric of our post communities abroad," Clinton said in the
memorandum, a copy of which was provided to The Times by a member of
the gay and lesbian association.
"At bottom," the paper quotes
Clinton as saying, "the department will provide these benefits for both
opposite-sex and same-sex partners because it is the right thing to do."
A senior State Department official confirmed the new policy, but did not say when it would take effect, the paper said.
Among
the benefits are diplomatic passports, use of medical facilities at
overseas posts, medical and other emergency evacuation, transportation
between posts, and training in security and languages, according to the
report.
Under current policy, diplomats with domestic partners
could be evacuated from a hazardous country by the US government while
their partners were left behind, The Times noted.
In the past,
the State Department declined to provide some benefits to the partners
of diplomats, invoking the Defense of Marriage Act, which limited
federal recognition of same-sex unions, The Times noted.
